For Others at Work

Let’s open our bibles together to 2nd Corinthians, and find with me chapter 2 and verse 14. 14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life.

And who is equal to such a task? 17 Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God. Last week week we began the ending of our 10 week series together, with the emphasis on “for others" in our Neighborhood. We examined in Marks gospel how Jesus sent out the disciples ,two by two to proclaim the gospel, and call people to repent.

One truth we explored last week was this, If your walk with Jesus is always about your comfort, you’ll never call yourself out of your own comfort zone to seek the lost. This morning, I want to look this theme, For others in our workplaces. When it comes to sharing the gospel, Every single person, believes and shares a gospel. IN our Scripture this is the aroma that Paul is speaking of.

What aroma are you giving off. The question is it the true gospel that we find in God’s word? Everybody knows something has gone terribly wrong, both in our soul, but also in our society. If you don’t believe me, just turn on the news. There’s fighting & wars, Famines, droughts, and don’t get me started on the whole political scene and how messed up that is. And so, we know there’s something deeply wrong with this world and so all of us, because we know something terrible has happened, we’re trying to put our hope into something or someone as the solution.

Pastor Tim Keller who just passed away this year, he mentioned that as long as you have breathe in your lungs, shows that you have hope and faith in something. And what we realize is that if that hope is on anything else other than God, eventually that hope will let you down. One reason, if you want to write this down or put it in your memory bank… one reason why we share the good news is because we have a hope that will never let us down.

We share the good news because Jesus is our hope. And so, we share the gospel of Jesus with others, when we share Jesus we share unshakable hope. But here’s the thing about the gospel. What gospel are you preaching and believing yourself? What would you say if I told you that today you preach some sort of gospel with your life? I learned this from a pastor named, Caleb Martinez who shared this information.

He teaches that there are three gospels we put our hope in and share with others. First, we spoke a little last week over it.. 55% in our community do not believe. They don’t believe in a religion at all but yet there is a gospel that they believe and we would call this, the secular gospel. This gospel is still a gospel but it’s not one that points others to the creator of all things.

It’s very human. It seeks to put human satisfaction and happiness first. It’s a gospel that says, I am the center of the universe. When we live for a secular gospel we tend to reject sin, and say things like. I’m not so bad. We exchange preachers for therapist. Now, I not saying therapist are bad, I seek mental help from therapy from time to time. What I’m saying is that secular gospel would not preach the message of turning from sin.

Instead, the secular gospel would preach, don’t worry about turning from sin, just turn within. Follow your truth. Follow what you believe. Be you. Be an individual. And although it seems to be harmless, or even helpful but actually it’s very hollow inside. It’s hollow because we exchanged holiness for happiness. Now, I need to make a disclaimer here. I am not saying that you’ll not find joy in your life.

What I am saying is this, to be happy, in a god given way is to become holy, but you can’t experience joy without holiness. Because happiness is found in my circumstances, while in holiness we find our joy in Jesus. Far too often we find ourselves stressed because we’re pursing some sort of happiness in life. And we learn that in this secular gospel, that my happiness is me chasing everything else but God.

Prayer is moved aside for more sleep. Bible reading is moved aside for more time scrolling our phones. We fill our lives with so many commitments that we don’t realize that our commitments are the cause of our stress. So when it comes to coming to church on a Sunday or being together in mid week, we replace being together with every other life pursuits. Our happiness is finding contemned through business, but what we do not realize is that it causes us to have a never ending cycle of anxiety.

The second gospel is one all of us may have been a part of, it’s called the American gospel. Now, before you grab your pitchforks I need to explain why many people within the church are actually believing in this false gospel. One component of the American gospel is that you need to be saved from hell. Now, that’s true. This gospel, you can find it in the scriptures but I believe it is incomplete because it does not make any emphasis on Jesus living in your life, and transforming your life.

That’s why you have people who knock on your door and say, Hi, how are you. What’s your name. I am so and so, let me ask you a question. If you were to die tonight, where would you go? Heaven or hell? I cringe when I would hear people say this… and honestly, this is what turned me off from continuing with the farmers association at the fair. They would sit in the tent, and yell at people as they walked by, “If you were to die today would you go to heaven or hell?" Let me just say…

that is not a good conversation starter. That is a poor way to evangelize to people in todays culture. It’s not a good way to get invited into someones house, or a good way to get people invited into the tent to hear the gospel. Because in my experience when I was preaching at the farmers association tent, once a person was led to Christ, they put their name on a pice of paper, and then sent them off with a walking stick to fend for themselves.

And so, here’s one of the issues with this kind of evangelism… it gives off the impression that it has everything to do with eternity, or your last day on earth, and not so much as becoming holy right now, and in this life, on this side of heaven. It’s about quantity more than seeing a life change in a person. So the question, what is salvation when it comes to the American gospel is this, “Salvation is living in heaven forever when we die.” “We’re not perfect.

We’re never gonna really transform on this side of heaven.”But when we die, we’ll be glorified. Everything will be better. No more tears, no more crying. And what a great gospel to believe in. Because, look we have a lot of conversions. We have a lot of people coming to Christ but that’s the whole point, and usually the only point. There’s usually only Conversions over discipleship. When I was helping the farmers association, that was my greatest issue with that they were doing.

There was no, let’s direct them to a church, or let’s get their information for a follow up, or to even lead them to baptism. Their idea of this American gospel they preached was to lead as many eternity without there being a need for Jesus outside of salvation. And so the American gospel doesn’t promote, in my opinion, a holiness that is possible on this side of heaven. It’s a tremendous strategy for making converts, but it’s terrible at making disciples.

I hope you see what I am saying, that although the American gospel preaches eternity, it has no real plan for longevity of seeing the person grow as a disciple in the present. The American gospel does not seek to see lives transformed. It becomes about sin management. It’s very individualistic. You just worry, am I gonna go to heaven? It’s just me and Jesus and there is no desire ot be with the body of Christ.

As long as I’m saved once, I am saved forever. This gospel can be found in the Scriptures with some elements of truth, But the emphasis on the American gospel is this, There’s eternity but no internal change or discipleship needed. It’s the once saved always saved mentality. And that is not the gospel we believe in. The third gospel that we live out in our lives is this, the biblical gospel.

The secular gospel rejects eternity and says that the end of life is for the happiness of man. As long as I get to the end of my human life, and I am happy, I have achieved and lived a good life. The American gospel focuses on eternity with Christ, but rejects the growth of the disciple. The biblical gospel is what we find in the Bible that combines salvation, with internal change, and eternity with Jesus.

It’s lived out in everyday life, and with an everyday sanctification looking froward to Christ as our perfecter of faith, and our anchor of hope. What do I mean by sanctification? Sanctification is this process of us growing and changing on this side of heaven to become more like Jesus, and the outcome is becoming holy people. The Biblical gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins and rose again, eternally triumphant over his enemies, so that there is now no condemnation for those who believe, but only everlasting joy.

But the gospel doesn’t stop there… the gospel is also the belief that those who have put there faith in Jesus now have His Spirit residing within them. And the Spirit as we have learned is forming us into His likeness. So the reality is, we never outgrow our need of the gospel. This isn’t like the American gospel where you put your faith in Jesus and now wait for death to be with Jesus..

no the biblical gospel is our everyday aroma from being with Jesus because Jesus is and has become our everyday life. John Piper writes, You never, never, never outgrow your need for this gospel. You don’t begin the Christian life with this and then leave it behind and get stronger with something else. God strengthens us with the gospel to the day we die.” What we learn is that in everyday life, this gospel we believe always produces a new direction in this age, and it always produces a newer person, everyday, if you remember in 2nd corinthians, we are changing, every day, from one glory to another.

So the biblical gospels is this emphasis on daily change into the likeness of Jesus. I want to encourage us this morning to ponder this question… what is the gospel aroma are we giving to others? Here’s where I want to go back into our Scripture. Look with me back in verse 14. Paul write, But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.

A life in Christ spreads the aroma of Him everywhere. Can you imagine trying to spread the aroma of Christ if we lived a secular gospel? Where you can read of Jesus, and know about Jesus and even know about eternal life, but still reject him as Lord over your life. Because I believe there are many who believe they are Christians and live that life. That would mean we’re trying to spread this aroma from within ourselves.

The gospel is dependent upon our happiness, and when I am unhappy, I lose all joy and mostly I lose all hope as well. What about the American gospel? Where the gospel is Repent and believe and have eternal life secured but it allows for your life to live in sin. Your just living for eternity to happen one day, but there is not emphasis on relationship or discipleship. And again, I believe this comes with comfort.

It’s easier to accept an eternity than it the fact that Christ calls us to be changed in the present. Then there is the biblical gospel. Where holiness and sanctification is our goal. Where eternity’s not our reward, but Christ Jesus himself is our reward. You see, “Jesus’s gospel is proven to produce disciples.” Not just followers, but disciples. As and disciples we are called to be the fragrance of Christ wherever we go.

That’s verse 15, look with me in verse 15. 15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. In a very real sense, believers make Christ present on earth, as He is in them. Everywhere they travel, they symbolically "give off the smell" of the Savior to fellow Christians and unbelievers alike.

It's an aroma that is received differently depending on one's eternal status. It’s living out this life of faith to everyone. And let me just say, if you remember last week, people can and will reject the gospel. I want to finish our message today with some practical truths. There are four aroma’s that God loves most. First, it’s the aroma of prayer. Just as the beginning of discplsipleshi is proximity, its the same with prayer.

I think of Psalm 27:4, “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.” I also thin of Psalm 77:13 the in the passion transition, It's here in your presence, in your sanctuary, where I learn more of your ways, for holiness is revealed in everything you do.

Lord, you're the one and only, the great and glorious God! Prayer is seeking to be in His presence. I want to dwell in HIs house. This is the foundation of of prayer.. to be in his presence, in his throne room, in the sanctuary of God. I want to gaze upon him. I sat in my room the other day, seeking, and pleading, and asking questions. I want to inquire of him for this decision and that decision.

I want to bask in his presence. Prayer is the foundation of presence. Prayer is the breath of a Christian. TO ask a Christina to stop praying is asking a christians to die. The second aroma is this, Repentance. Listen. This is very important. You can’t just confess your sins. That does nothing. Confession does nothing if there is no repentance. Because confession without repentance is nothing but bragging about your sin.

David cries out, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. IN David’s life, and in his confession was the reality that his Spirit was broken over his sin. There must be a sorrow over your sin. But here’s the danger, sorrow over sin must lead us to Christ who died for our sin. If we allow sorrow to settle in and then believe that there is no hope for us, we allow the enemy to trick us into believing that Christ, upon the cross of calvary, and his resurrection was not enough to defeat our sin.

And if the is true, then every person who has confessed in Christ is enterally lost. That’s a lie.That’s a lie.That’s a lie. Sorrow must lead the heart of the persons to confession. Confession should not look to mitigate, to lesson, or excuse, or rationalize or blame. Genuine confession takes ownership of the pain that our sin has caused and it thrusts it upon the only person who can save us from it…

and that is Jesus Christ. Scripture tells us that we must not only repent but that we must also actively turn from the sins we commit. And here’s the key, repentance never feels good. and if it does, you’re doing it wrong. Our need for repentance is what reminds us of our need for grace while displaying our growth in grace to the world around us. That’s an aroma that is pleasing to God and will be pleasing to others.

The third aroma is of your witness. In our Scripture Paul charges Christians to spread “the fragrance of the knowledge of everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.” This knowledge that Paul speaks of, that we proclaim ,is that Jesus Christ was crucified for the sins of mankind, and all who repent and appropriate his sacrificial death on the cross through faith will be saved by God’s grace.

Paul write to the Ephesians, 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. And unforntualy, not everyone likes this scent of truth even when it’s spoken “with gentleness and respect,” as it always ought to be. ‘ Understand this, nothing is more pleasant to the Father than to see his Son glorified in the courageous testimonies of those he came to save.

And if the Lord is pleased with us, “what can man do?” And finally, the aroma of our love. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” As Christ-followers, we are called to give no less (Ephesians 5:2) — not that we are called to die for others’ sins. But we are called to demonstrate Christ’s suffering and sacrifice through our own emotional, spiritual, and even physical sufferings on behalf of others, however that may look in our daily lives (Colossians 1:24).

What aroma are you giving off to others? *

For Others in Our Neighborhood

Let’s open our Bible together to Mark chapter 6, and we’ll be in verses 7-12. Today is the first day of the next three weeks that were learning our third part of our vision statement, For Others. Holiness, and discipleship will always lead a Christian to be on mission For Others. For everyone who is a follower of Jesus, this is what it means to be a follower of Jesus. When you chose to follow Jesus, you signed up—not just to support others for mission trips, but to live a missional life.

And so, for the next three weeks counting today, I want to invite you to consider what it means for your life, to Carry the presences of Jesus, together ,with others. Let’s dive into our Scripture this morning. Mark 6, verses 7-13, 7 And called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— 9 but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.

10 And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11 And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” 12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

Jesus sent out his disciples out. Now, we don’t know exactly how long they were gone but we do know it was for a brief time because they returned to him. If we would keep on reading , we would actually see that after word reaches Jesus of John the Baptist’s death, and then, right before the feeding of the 5,000 in verse 30, we wittiness them returning. Just a side note, when they return in verse 30, I do want you to noice the importance of rest.

Just a promo, here in the new year I'm working on a series of messaged about Sabbath and Simplicity. But right now, I want to focus on verse 7, it says, 7 And called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. There’s so much we can unpack here together, but lets just think about what we’re seeing here. First, think about who Jesus sent, The twelve.

Ordinary men. If you recall a couple weeks ago we said that Jesus doesn’t necessarily call the mature as much as he calls those who’s willing to make themselves available. But lets just think about this for a moment… this wasn’t Jesus’s all star team. Up to this point, this wasn’t a Moses, or an Abraham, or a king David. No.. just a bunch of outcasts like a, tax collector, a zealot, a doubter, a betrayer, and blue color fishermen who all had personal issues.

If you need even more proof, just flip over two chapters and if you recall, Jesus told the parable of the soils and these guys were clueless. In chapter five you find these men frustrated. Now, here’s the part in verse 7 that I want to focus on, look with me. It says, he sent them out. You can circle that if you want. But then, go further in verse seven and also circle gave them authority.

To be sent out, the greek work here is apostello, which is where we get the word apostle. It means to be sent out but also to be sent out with another persons authority. That is the picture of what’s happening here. Jesus is authorizing this group of disciples to go out in His name with His authority to do His work in His power. And so, here’s a point… If your walk with Jesus is always about your comforts, you’ll never call yourself out of your own comfort zone to seek the lost.

Never. People will never see the importance of missions when it’s about personal comfort, and our own authority. These kinds of people will always see “the mission” as someone else’s job, or someone else’s call…. Or someone else’s problem…. But Not thier own. Because This is so important to grasp. Listen, These guys weren’t going out to start their own work; they were extending Jesus’ work. They were not going out on their own; they were going out in Jesus’ name, as Jesus’ representatives, with Jesus’ message, Jesus’ power and Jesus’ authority to do Jesus’ work.

The whole point is that they would be going out in Jesus’ name, under his authority, and under his leadership. The same is true for us. I am around people every week. I think about our demographic in our area, our county a lot. Lycoming county is roughly 45% Christian. That’s what the statistics say… If that is true, that means 55% of the people we’re around everyday do no know Jesus.

If that is true, 55% of our neighbors, and 55% of our co workers, and 55% of our friends and family. There are 62,000+ people by statistics alone, eternally lost. And I’m not confident that 45% of the people who claim christianity are saved either. All kinds of people call themselves Christians and go to church who are not followers of Jesus. But imagine, though, if those numbers were true, if those 55% of people living around us were to die right now, they would go to everlasting, never-ending judgment and suffering.

I’m thinking about our church family, right here, right now in this city, and the opportunity we have to make disciples and multiply churches. I’m thinking about the opportunity we have as we sign a 50 year partnership with Montoursville little league. I think of all the parents and grandparent and more importantly the children who we can touch with the gospel. Just Friday of this week a little girl at Loyalsock valley elementary took my hand and said, I know you.

And I looked at her and said, oh… how is that? And she goes, you’re Abbagail’s father, and I was at your baseball field. This was a little girl… I have no clue what Abby and I did to make her and I such an impressible person to that little girl remembered us from 4 months ago, but she remembered our ball field. We’ve got to decide in our life right now, who’s calling us out into this mission field.

The second word of encouragement I have for you is this.. look with me in verses 8-9… 8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— 9 but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. He charged them to go, but to go and take nothing. When I pack, I put the suitcase on the bed, and I begin to place all the clothes I need, the charging cords, the books, the shoes and don’t forget the toiletry bag just filled to the zipper with stuff.

Can you imagine going into your bedroom and laying everything out for a mission trip on your bed, and Jesus walks in and says put on one set of clothes and grab your toothbrush and let’s get out of here. The picture we see is this, Mission people are people trusting in Jesus’s provisions. This faith in Jesus wasn’t just a one nighter of kindness, but a journey of faith. Remember a month or two ago I asked this question, is faith really faith if we never step out into the unknown?

Where in the Bible does it say that the more comfortable we are, the more faith we receive? Where I the Bible does it say, your faith will offer you a country club experience? I’ve been saturating in hebrews for a few weeks. One day I was reading chapter 11 and in my CSB Bible I began to get focused on this phrase, by faith… over 23 times there is these phrases, by faith.

Chapter 11 says, that although he did not know where he was going, speaking of Abraham, he still went by faith. Listen church… This is so important. Don’t miss this. You don’t need faith, you don’t need to trust in God, to live out a quiet, casual, comfortable Christianity over the next three weeks. You can do nothing. You don't need faith to come to church. You don’t need the power of God to live out cultural Christianity, where you’re silent with the gospel.

Millions upon millions of professing Christians are doing that on their own every week. But Jesus is calling us to something greater, something higher. He’s calling us to step out in faith, putting our lives and reputations on the line. For the next three weeks, I’m going to challenge you in this. I’m gonna challenge us to say, “God, I don’t want to sit back and settle for self-centered, self-saturated, casual, comfortable cultural Christianity.

That’s not what I was made for. I was made for so much more. Listen, you’re heart was changed from death to life to do more than find comfort. You’re heart wasn’t designed to hoard the grace and the gospel of God for yourself. Because I believe… if you desire joy… right.. the joy of the Lord. Joy is found in pleasing the father. Joy is created through being satisfied in Christ alone, who cries out, Abba Father, and Jesus says, his mission was to seek the lost.

God is waiting for His people to step out and trust Him to do what only He can do through us. Our faith, His provision. Say that with me.. Our faith, His provision. The third encouragement we learn in this Scripture is where the rubber meets the road.. and it’s the one thing that I think is the greatest deterrent for many to step away from missions. Look with me in verse 12, would someone read that for us?

12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. The primary thing we do with being on mission is calling people to repent. Lets dig into this deeper… What are you going to do, as you’re out there with nothing but your outfit and toothbrush? Well, pastor, I’m going to go to work, or to my neighbors house, or out in public and I’m gonna smile all the time and be happy, and I’m gonna be nice to others.

Okay, that’s good, but really? Don’t you think…. aren’t we called to be more than just nice to others? I mean, yes we’re to be good to others, but isn’t our faith meant for more? How can one, by faith, through grace have the authority of Christ, and Christ in them, and forming them, and changing them, to only hope that our kindness will proclaim to a person to repent? Let me just say, it’s scary to ask another person to repent.

It’s got to be the right time. We can’t just walk up to total strangers and go, repent, you evil sinful person. We might get clocked in the nose. Right? The beauty of leaning on Jesus and His provision, and God’s timing… and sensing the Spirits moving in our hearts, and seeing God’s hand move through the lives of those around us. I remember at the fair where I volunteered to share the gospel with hundreds of people.

From 10am, to 9pm I preached the gospel, and with my paper, drew out the gospel of God’s love and then every person I interacted with all said they were almost saved. Every single person. I’m here.. pointing to the point right before going to Jesus. And I would ask them.. what’s stopping you form reaching Jesus into your heart right now? What’s stopping you from saying, Jesus I have sinned.

I’ve turned aside from God and His ways to myself and my own ways, so my sin has separated me from God. And although I deserve eternal separation, GOd sent his son, Jesus Who has paid the price for our sin by dying on a cross. And Jesus raised from the dead in three days, and so In victory over death, so that anyone, anywhere who repents—turns from their sin, their selves and every attempt to save themselves, who believes and trusts in the good news of God’s love for us in Jesus—will be forgiven of all their sin and restored to a right a good relationship with God for all of eternity.

Thats not my message. That’s gods message and I am inviting you today, to believe in it. This is why you hear, repent and believe in the gospel. But the truth is, not everyone will listen. Even that day when I was open evangelizing. Not every person I gave the gospel to received Jesus. And I cried. And cried, and I kept praying.. honestly, I didn’t witness one person from my conversation come to Christ till the evening.

But what do we do when they reject it? That’s what verse 11 shows us, This picture of shaking the dust off our feet if people don’t listen to you is basically a symbolic gesture to indicate that somebody, or a group of people, or even a town, had rejected Jesus’ call to repent. Listen, it is not our responsibility to force repentance. If people rejected the gospel, Jesus said, “You’ve done your responsibility.

How they respond is their responsibility.” We learn this in Ezekiel chapter 33. God says, imagine you’re on the watch tower and your looking for enemies. You’re looking for danger, as long as you sound the horn and the people inside the walls hear it, they will have a choice to respond. If they don’t respond and they’re harmed or killed, you warned them, so their blood is on their hands.” But if you’re the watchman on the tower, and you see danger, but yet you do not blow the horn, you don’t sound the warning, and the people are hurt, then God says, “The blood of those people is on your hands.” So I want us to see this picture.

There are 112,000 people in this county. And many of them we will interact with at work, or school, or at the grocery store, for whom eternal danger is coming at any moment. So think of this… we can’t control how people will respond to the gospel, but do you know what we can control? Whether or not people hear this gospel. So the question is: will they hear this good news or warning from us, or are we going to be silent over the next two weeks, with everlasting danger heading their way, but we’re saying nothing?

I didn’t always have a heart for the lost. If I’m honest with you, I didn’t have a heart for the lost until December of 2019. I’ve been evangelizing the amazing people of Timberend for almost a year by then and I got a message that this woman, and she was in the hospital and many in the Timberend group chat was asking for prayer for this lady. So, I made a cold call to her hospital room on that Wednesday.

She didn’t know me, I didn’t know her, but I went to her room, and immediately was kept at the door because staff was in her room cleaning, and she was getting her food, and the nurses were giving medication and caring for her. She was alert and sober in mind, she saw me. I was young, and inexperienced. I felt that I was more of a bother for her with all the other things going on, so I introduced myself, and I said, Nancy it seems its a bit busy..

can I come back in a couple days and visit you? And she nodded and responded back to me, yes… Two days later her son writes on our group chat that his mother had passed. God sent me to preach the gospel to her and I was turned away by not wanting to inconveniencing her more. Because I know I could have waited, but I didn’t. So do you know what God did…

he made sure I never forgot that moment and that woman. Her son called me over the weekend after she had passed and said, you were the last person to see my mom… would you consider to officiate her funeral. My first funeral as a senior pastor was for a woman that I was led by the Spirit to preach the gospel to in the hospital, and she died before I got to ask her if she knew Jesus.

God help us not to be silent in this church when so many people out there are going to eternal judgment. God help us to stop sitting here a building playing roulette with the lives of those we claim to love. My testimony is a reminder of this… and it’s our final word of encouragement… look with me in verses 12 and 13: 12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent.

13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. We can take days talking about casting out demons and such.. but what I want to show you is this… Jesus was clearly calling His followers to go to people in need and care for them. He wanted his disciples to know that compassion is a part of the mission. We can’t come up with some sort of open door policy and go, come if you want, the doors are unlocked and opened.

And if you dont come, that’s you’re fault. No, that’s not Christ like.. Jesus says, you go to them, and you proclaim the gospel, call for repentance and anoint them. Do you know why anointing is important? In James 5 the oil was a symbol of the presence and grace of God. It is a beautiful picture. Jesus is saying, “Go to people in need and care for them in such a way that they see My presence is with them and My grace is for them.” What a picture!

What an amazing picture that is given to us today. What if, we became a church that actually looked below the surface of everyday life and everyday lives, and into the deeper lives of the people around us and we had compassion for them? Let’s intentionally ask, “Who is hurting around me? How can I help them in such a way that they see in me that God is with them and God is for them?” Wouldn’t that be amazing?

To be on mission, to rely on his provision, to share His message, and to show his love. This is a calling for all of us. And right now, you and I get to choose whether we’ll be watchmen to sound the alarm, or not. You and I get to choose whether or not we’ll show compassion or not. My prayer is that we will be men and woman who seek the lost at all cost.

And we have some amazing opportunities already, Jesus says, the harvest is ready, but the workers are few. I want to end our time together with communion. As we share communion I want to say something. We are a body. You and I, we are a family in a way…in a way that supersedes blood ties. We have such a hard time grasping that, but this is the beauty of the New Testament church.

Today, is a special day because we’ve been taking communion every single Sunday for a couple months now, of course, minus last Sunday. My desire for us today is this… why not renew our commitment to Christ and to each other and our commitment to His mission. Would you be willing to do that? 1 Corinthians 11:26 says, “Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” The lords supper is a proclamation.

It’s not just eating and drinking, it’s proclaiming. When we take the Lord’s Supper, we proclaim we are a body, who comes from every tribe and nation and tongue, united together by the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. Secondly, communion is a moment of rejoicing. why do we rejoice in the Lord’s Supper? Because He has set us free. We’re not enslaved to sin, the things of this world, or to ourselves, we are sons and daughters of God.

And because of this relationship… we rejoice. My Brothers and sisters, when we take this bread together, and we eat of it together, we are looking back and remembering the body of Christ, but we are also anticipating the day when we are before the eternal glory of God, with new bodies. The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, broken for you, preserve you blameless, unto everlasting life. Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.

My Brothers and sisters, when we take this cup together, and we drink this cup together, we are looking back and remembering the blood of Christ, but we are also anticipating the day when we will share the cup with our risen Savior. The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, shed for you, preserve you blameless unto everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.

Let’s sing one last time as our benediction, verse 4 of power in the blood. *

I Am Light

I want to invite you to open your Bibles with me to Isaiah chapter 9, and then we'll move to John chapter 8 for our I AM statement. Isaiah is a really cool book. It’s what we call a prophetic book. It’s about proclaiming. It proclaims truth. It proclaims consequences. And it proclaims the future. And when we read this book, Isiah is writing about the dark days of Israel. What I mean is that there is not much going on thats good for the people of God. Think about all the things they’ve witnessed through their tradition and history. Their not marching out of Slavery, or Egypt. THere not seeing walls fall down like Jerico They’re not conquering lands as they walk into the promised land singing songs of praise. The glory days of King David a man who loved God with all of his heart, and the richness of his son Solomon ruling with wisdom are no longer in the picture. Their economy, isn’t expanding but shrinking. They have gone through a civil war as a nation and at the end of it all they didn’t stay unified, but ended up splitting into two kingdoms, the north and the south. A conquering king named Tiglith Palesar has just absorbed the northern kingdom. Now, in the southern kingdom, Judah is depressed, insecure about their existence.. they are experiencing external decay. But not only is their world externally decaying, but there is even internal decay as well. Think about their religious life as God’s chosen people… They have given up rituals that prioritized and celebrated God, they have given these rituals up for self-serving practices. So what that means is they kind of made church about themselves. And so, in the midst of all of this external and internal decay, watching the northern kingdom fall, the first 8 chapters of Isaiah reflect nothing but desperate and dark days. Even a few chapters before chapter 9, we read in Chapter 6: “The day King Uzziah died….Their safety net of wise leadership is gone… And so, Isaiah, in the midst of all of these dark and desperate days, he begins to tell them, or prophesying, the truth about the internal and external decay. And what he’s doing is speaking to the southern nation about the consequences of the activities that they are indulging in, and the coming invasion from the Assyrians. But, in the heart of this message that he is giving, theres an announcement of hope. IN chapter 9, after all the doom and gloom of the truth of whats going on and going to happen, Isaiah makes this announcement. Look in verse two with me… it says, The people walking in darkness; have seen such a great light; a light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness. Amen, right? Internal and external decay. People being carried off into a different life. The temple laying in ruins and the city of Jerusalem ransacked, and destroyed. Only the poorest, and the lame, and the remnants left behind to live out a life of total survival. But In the midst of all of that darkness.. Isaiah gives this message of hope… those walking in darkness have seen a great light. What is this great light? Well.. its a baby announcement. Look with me in verse 6… For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us. Thats a 700+ year old baby announcement. And its right before Jesus would show up on the scene. Do you know what happens when a baby shows up on the scene? ….. Theres a buzz. Right? There excitement. There is this long awaited anticipation, and expectation, and of course… all the waiting. When anyone is waiting for a baby, theres this feeling of new hope, New life, new beginnings and of course, the laughter that comes with watching all the coos and funny things the baby does. Anyone who has had a child, or knows a child, or been a part of a little babies life, knows the crazy things that you do… you do things you would have never imagined: You’re speech changes… For whatever reason.. you begin speaking in third person.. daddy loves you.. Oh yes he does. Goo goo ga ga… Then theres the funny faces that you make… Especially while playing peek a boo. For the first time in your begin to become obsessed with human waste. Right? First its trying to catch it before it goes everywhere. And then.. the task of learning how to dispose of it.

When Alicia and I had our kids, I also noticed that our focus changed.

Being in love, and getting married and having kids, changed my focus… and they became the object of my focus. To provide for them. To love them. To correct them… I mean the kids not my wife… I’ve been married along enough t know I don’t correct my wife. But having kids and teaching them and watching them grow, I think any parent would say, it was grueling work. After the birth, the stitches, and staples, and glue and duct tape were needed to put Alicia back together. When each of them were born… I had the pleasure of watching the euphoria in the tears of seeing her meet our kids for the first time. Because for us… For to us, a child had been born. And you know what… with all the darkness and struggles, and financial strain we had, and what was to come after having our first kid… Hope was injected into our life. New life… new possibilities. New ways of doing things. And just when we think life is getting hard again, trying to raise one kid… Unto us a child is born… Chloe comes onto the scene… And it was the same with Abby… just when things seemed hard, and during this hard season we were losing our home and had to move… and we moved, and guess what… bam… Hope for a third time is injected into our lives.

This is what God was announcing to Israel. In spite of the darkness around you…… Unto you a child will be born. And to top it all off… if you know the Scripture and you look in verse 6 again.. God even goes on to list the differences the changes that “this child” particularly will deliver… Its not just any child… but “The” Child… the Messiah. Israel calls him, “Light” in the darkness. A name that we see come true in the book of John. A name that brings much hope. Now, let's fast forward 700 years from Isaiah's birth announcement in John Chapter 8. Remember all that darkness Isaiah was talking about? The internal decay, the external threats, the feeling that everything was falling apart? That was still the life going on for the people of the world. Jesus steps into darkness,.. the same darkness that we live in. Think about that… Jesus steps into that same kind of darkness we experience in this life and he says something amazing in chapter 8, verse 12… HEY SAYS, , I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life. You know what amazes me about this? Jesus doesn't just speak about the light from a distance. He doesn't send a message from heaven saying "Hey, hang in there Matthew, Don’t worry… hang on… light is coming! No - He steps right into our mess. Right into our broken relationships. Right into our financial struggles. Right into our doubts and fears. And when He steps in, He doesn't just bring a flashlight to help us see our way through the darkness. He says "I AM the light." Present tense. Right here. Right now This is too amazing to me. Because in all honesty… its a moment in our faith where Jesus says.. stop focusing on the darkness… stop focusing on all the things around you… just focus on me in the midst of your darkness. Think about this with me for a moment. What's the first thing God ever said in the Bible? "Let there be light." And what's the first thing Jesus says about Himself in our passage? "I am that light." This isn't a coincidence, church. This is God saying, "Just as I spoke light into the darkness at creation, when you come to faith in Christ alone, by faith alone, He, meaning Jesus becomes our light… And, Do you know what's fascinating about light? Even the smallest amount changes everything about darkness. You can be in the darkest room of your house, and just one tiny crack of light under the door changes everything. Now, get this… When light touches something, it doesn't just partially illuminate it. Light is all or nothing. That's why Jesus doesn't say "I'll help you see a little better" or "I'll give you some guidelines to follow." He says "Whoever follows me will NEVER walk in darkness.” Ya know.. I love that phrase all or nothing… Think about your faith right now…. Are you all or nothing when it comes to your faith? When we talk about sanctification… ya know that big word… to be holy as he is holy… to be entirely sanctified… do you know what it means… in a simple and gentle way, it means this… Relationship. Faithful relationship. And all in to the other person. It means Christ and I become one. We’ve been bonded, and a union has taken place. My life is surrendered to him, and he becomes my life. It's like marriage in a way. When Alicia and I got married, there wasn't a "kind of married" option. There wasn't a "married on Tuesdays and Thursdays" choice. It was all or nothing. There is no 50/50 in our marriage. She gives all of herself to me, and I give all of myself to her. And we become one. That's what Jesus is talking about here. Everything that belongs to one person becomes available to the other. When the light of Christ, enters our lives, it's not just a spotlight showing us where to walk - it's a complete transformation of our life. Where I go he is, where he is, I want to be. We’re one. But what prevents us from leaving our darkness and walking in light?

Fear…. Let’s be honest. we’re afraid to step out of the norm. We’re afraid of change. Fear is an emotion caused by the belief that something or someone poses a threat to us. Who poses a threat to us… to our way of life? Well, God does. I know this first hand. When I was in college I was invited to a church by a girl. I didn’t want to be there. God was a threat to my way of life, and how he wanted me to live my life. When we hear things like, “God wants to bring to light your sin, and he wants to invade your hearts. That didn’t sound appealing to me. When I am the Lord of my own heart, that’s the kind of language that’s threatening. You want to expose my sin? You want to change me? Whats wrong with who I am? But yet, here’s the reality I never realized… I was allowing my sinfulness to rule my life and it was keeping me trapped while I lived my life in darkness. Because I was in love with my darkness! I was in love with my sin. Jesus put it like this when he was describing his own coming : “This is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed”

Our problem is not that we don’t have light, our problem is that we love the darkness. We love it. We love it because we believe it protects us. It shrouds our life in mystery and hides our wrongs. And my entire life before Christ came into my life, I was comfortable with it… and anytime, or anyone that tried to change my mind, they were a threat. And I let fear rule my life.

You know, when we talk about fear, we're not just talking about being afraid of the dark or scared of spiders. There are deeper fears that can keep us from experiencing God's light in our lives. Theres two fears in particular that I see holding many of us back. The first one is the fear of intimacy - real intimacy. I'm talking about truly knowing and being known by God and others. This kind of intimacy takes time. When I think about this, I always think about my relationship with Alicia. We've been married for 19 years, and I love her more today than I did back then. Why? Because true intimacy takes time, and effort, and a whole lot of understanding, and trust me - it takes a whole lot of grace and forgiveness from both people. But Our love has grown because we've both made intentional choices to know each other deeper. Even when I'm exhausted, even when I'm tired, there's this strength that comes from wanting to be close to her, to care for her and our family. That's what real intimacy looks like. And you know what? That's exactly what God desires to have with us. When Jesus says "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength" - that's intimacy. It's not just following rules or showing up to church. It's about a deep, personal relationship. Listen churhc, Fear either drives us toward God or away from Him - there's no middle ground

But here's the second fear, and in some ways, it's the opposite of intimacy - it's the fear of rejection.

I wrote something in my journal a couple years ago that I keep coming back to: "The hardest part of living a life of rejection is when you begin to believe that the addiction to man's acceptance and approval is normal. You and I can become very easily starved for acceptance and approval form others. Think about it - we count our social media likes, we measure how many people show up to our events, \ we compare our friend count with others. We get so hungry for approval that it becomes like a drug. And just like any addiction, it becomes a prison for our minds. That's an unhealthy way of living. And if left unchecked, approval of others can become a drug that we become addicted to. Think about this - humans are the only beings on this planet that seek out and long for the approval of others. And yet, we fear being rejected by them.

This addiction to approval reveals something profound about fear itself - fear can very easily become the enemy of our faith. But here's where we need to make an important distinction. You see, not all fear is created equal. The Bible actually teaches us about a good kind of fear - what we call 'the fear of the Lord.' This holy fear is completely different from the kind of fear that paralyzes us. In fact, Proverbs puts these two fears in direct contrast. It says, 'Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe' (Proverbs 29:25). Do you see the difference? One fear traps us; the other frees us."

V Jesus tells us, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’ What Jesus is teaching us here is amazing: darkness can only overcome us when we CHOOSE to love our darkness more than we love God. Think about that - it's always a choice. Even in our most fearful moments, we're choosing what to love. And here's where fear comes in - the kind of fear the world offers actually prevents us from loving God rightly. We see this play out beautifully in Scripture. There’s this amazing story in Exodus. Listen to this - chapter 20, verses 20-21: 'Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning." The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.’ Did you catch what happened there? The same fear that made everyone else step back made Moses step forward. Same God, same darkness, different response. Was Moses afraid? I'm sure he was. But his fear was different. Look at his words again: 'Do not be afraid... so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.’ Do you get what he's saying? Don't love your darkness more than your salvation. Don't choose the familiar shadows over God's transforming light. And this points us straight to Jesus. Because none of us can perfectly obey God's law - we need Jesus to cover our sin, our disobedience. That's exactly what He did at the cross. He paid the price for us. Died in our place. Rose again in victory. And now we're saved not by perfectly following rules, but by trusting in Him."

A people that was once walking in darkness has now seen a great light. This truth changes everything for us! - when we put our trust in Jesus, we no longer need to fear God's judgment. Our relationship with Him becomes marked by love instead of fear. Let me explain it this way... My mother is the closest thing to a father I've ever had. My love for her runs so deep that I never want to see her hurt or disappointed. Growing up - and some of you might remember this - I was part of that generation where you had to 'Go pick out your own switch.' But here's what I didn't understand until I had my own kids: it wasn't just the fear of punishment that hurt. Deep down in my heart, what really scared me was the thought of breaking her heart - because I love her that much. That's exactly what Moses understood about the fear of God. It's not about being terrified of hellfire - it's about loving God so much that what scares us most is the thought of being separated from His presence. You see, this is what entire sanctification looks like - when our fear of going to hell transforms into a fear of being separated from the One who loved us enough to step into our darkness. It's not about rules anymore - it's about relationship.

But here's the beautiful thing - even when we fail, even when we miss the mark, God's grace is sufficient. Through Jesus, we have the light of life tomorrow guide us back into God’s loving embrace As Paul tells the Corinthians, "God, who said 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts" (2 Corinthians 4:6). Jesus is literally the "radiance of God's glory" (Hebrews 1:3). He's not just bringing light - He IS our light. The true light of this world. And He makes us this amazing promise - if you turn to Him, and you won't walk in darkness anymore. Instead, God puts His very Spirit within us, allowing us to cry out "Abba, Father" (Galatians 4:6).

His very presence is within you! As Peter comes forward… and we come to our conclusion… I want to ask… do you you know what's amazing? The same God who said 'Let there be light' at creation, who was the light Moses approached in the darkness, who spoke of the light to come through Isaiah, who came as light through Jesus - who says, I will place the Spirit of my sin within you, that same God now says to us, 'You are the light of the world' (Matthew 5:14). Think about that for a moment. We're not just recipients of the light - we're carriers of it. We’re carriers of the very presence of GOd. We’re carries of this hope that we have in Christ. When Jesus says in the beatitudes, 'You are the light of the world,' He's not giving us a suggestion or a goal to reach for - He's telling us who we already are in Him. He’s giving us an identity. An extension of himself… we get to share him with others.

This advent season, where we celebrate the Light coming into the world, I want to leave you with this thought. We're not just celebrating what happened 2000 years ago. We're not just remembering a historical moment. We're living in the reality of what that light does in us today. When Jesus said "I am the light of the world," that wasn't the end of the story. Because now, that same light lives in you. Think about that - the light that spoke galaxies into existence, the light that Moses approached in the darkness, the light that came as a baby in a manger - that light now lives in you. Remember how we started? Those people walking in darkness who saw a great light? That's not just their story - it's your story too. And now, you get to be that light for someone else who's walking in darkness. So here's my challenge to you as we enter this advent season: Be light. And Go shine. But listen carefully - this isn't about mustering up your own strength or trying to generate your own light. This is about the reality that His light already lives in you, by faith, in Christ. You're not just a carrier of light - you're a sanctuary of His presence. What does this look like tangibly? Be light in your waiting - when others are rushing, let your peace shine Be light in your worship - when others are stressing, let your joy shine Be light in your witness - when others are searching, let your hope shine Maybe it's opening your Christmas table to someone who would otherwise eat alone. Maybe it's noticing the person at work whose smile doesn't quite reach their eyes. Maybe it's being the one who stops, listens, and shines hope into someone else's darkness.

Do me a favor.. if you have a smart phone, could you take out your phone and open up the camera app…. Do you have it open… now hit that button that turns the camera around to where you can see yourself. Now, smile… and Take a picture. Do you have it… now put that in a text message and send it to the number on the screen. Church, do you want to to know what hope looks like in our dark world? It looks like you… It looks like you, carrying His light into every situation you face It looks like you, choosing to shine even when fear tells you to hide It looks like you, being the hope that someone else needs Remember what Jesus said about light under a bushel? It's meant to be seen. And this Advent season, our world desperately needs to see it. So church, be light. Go shine. Because the hope you carry isn't just for you - it's for every heart still walking in darkness. The light has come. The light is here. the light lives in you. And now, go share that light with the world.” Be light and go shine.

Let's pray… Father God, we thank you that you are the God who speaks light into darkness. Thank you that even when we loved our darkness, you didn't leave us there. You sent your Son, Jesus, to be the light of the world. Lord, we confess that sometimes we let our fears keep us from stepping into your light. Sometimes we choose to stay in familiar darkness rather than trust in your transforming presence. Forgive us, Father. Thank you that through Jesus, you've made us carriers of your light. Help us not to hide that light, but to shine boldly in a world that desperately needs hope. Give us courage like Moses to step toward you, even when others step back. As we enter this advent season, remind us daily that your light lives in us. Help us to be the hope that others need. Let your light shine so brightly through us that others can't help but see you. In Jesus's name, Amen. Benediction: May the God who said "Let light shine out of darkness" fill you with His presence. May the Christ who is the light of the world guide your every step. May the Holy Spirit empower you to be light in every dark place you enter. And may you go forth to shine with the confidence that where His light is, darkness cannot stay. Now go, be light, and shine with the hope of Christ. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. *

I AM the Door

I want to invite you to open you bibles with me to John Chapter 10. You know those home projects that are supposed to be simple? The ones where you think, "Oh, this'll just take an hour or two?" Well, that was exactly what we thought when two men from church came over to the house on Thursday to install a screen door. I mean, how hard could it be, right? But here's what happened - and I bet some of you can relate to this. One of them starts looking at the old door, and he notices these gaps in the weather stripping. And I'm not talking about small gaps - I'm talking about gaps big enough that we had our own little wildlife sanctuary moving in! Box beetles, spiders, ladybugs... it was like we were running a bed and breakfast for whatever could get inside of our house. He, being the thorough guy that he is, tries fixing the stripping first. And you'd think that would solve it, Right? But the gaps just wouldn't go away. And that's when we discovered the real issue. You see, whoever installed that original door - bless their heart right? Thats the southern way of saying they were wrong… - but whoever installed it, they just didn’t get it quite right. The frame wasn't secure. It wasn't even level. Now, I don't know much about door installation, that’s why I am thankful for these two men who had the knowledge,, but even I know that its pretty important to have it level and secured to the house! So, What started as a "quick" screen door installation turned into the two of them basically rebuilding the whole entrance. And, You know, as I stood there watching them work - and yes, I was supervising, God started speaking to my heart. It reminded me of something Jesus talks about in John chapter 10, Because just like that door at the parsonage, sometimes we think we've got everything figured out in our spiritual lives, but the frame of our life isn't quite right.

Before we dive into our text, can I ask you something? And I want you to really think about this - what kind of door are you counting on in your life right now? Is it secure? Is the foundation solid? Or are there gaps letting things in that maybe shouldn't be in your life? Let's read together John chapter 10. We're going to start at verse 7… 7 Jesus said again, “Truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me[a] are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. 9 I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.

You know, as I think about that door at the parsonage, I can't help but get excited about what I want to share with you this morning. Because in our text today, we're going to discover three things that will completely change how we view Jesus as our door. First, we're going to see Jesus introducing himself to some religious leaders called the Pharisees. Then we'll look at an invitation - because Jesus doesn't just tell us who He is, He invites us to experience who He is. And finally, we'll explore what I call the illumination - these amazing promises Jesus gives to everyone who walks through His door. But before we dive into all that, we need to understand what's happening here. Because this isn't just some random moment where Jesus decides to talk about doors. There's a story here. When we look at the chapters before this moment, we see that Jesus was speaking to two very different groups of Jews - one group believing and following Him, the other... well, not so much. And right there, in the middle of this tension, in chapter 8 Jesus starts talking about truth and freedom. One of my favorite lines that Jesus says in chapter 8 is “if you continue in my word, you really are my disciples.” Its about remaining and and abiding in him. Then comes the story in chapter 9 about the blind man.

Listen to this story. … Jesus takes mud - not just any mud, but mud mixed with His own spit - and smears it on this blind man's eyes. Ewww gross right? That’s defiantly not Covid protocol. Then He tells him, "Go wash in the pool of Siloam." Now, put yourself in this blind man's Jerusalem joggers for a moment. What has he got to lose, right? Other than his dignity, being led through the streets with mud on his face? And I can imagine the conversations on his way to the pool: "Hey, what's that on your face?" "Oh, you know, just some stranger's spit and dirt. He said it would help me see!” But here's where it gets good - he goes to that pool, washes off the mud, and… Bam! He can see! For the first time in his life, he's seeing colors, faces, the sky. I dunno… maybe even seeing his own reflection in the pool for the first time! If there was ever a perfect moment for someone to burst into "Amazing Grace" - you know, "I once was blind but now I see" - this was it! And it was a moment of celebration. But watch what happens next, because this is where things get really interesting. The whole city goes absolutely nuts! His neighbors - people who'd walked past him who saw him begging every single day - they can't even recognize him. Thats what is happing here… People are doing double-takes, "Wait... aren't you that blind guy who used to sit and beg?" And I love his response - he keeps saying, "Yep, that's me! I'm the one!” And You want to know the funny part? When they ask him how it happened, he gives the shortest testimony ever. Think about this… Not once… in this whole story does He go into detail about Jesus's spit or anything of the sort. He just says, "The man called Jesus made some mud." …… That’s it! Short and sweet. When I read this I’ve always wondered, why did he leave that part out? I dunno. I just wondered that. But here's where the story takes a serious turn. They bring him to the Pharisees. Now, this wasn't optional. In the jewish culture, if you were healed of anything, you had to be examined by the priests before you could rejoin community life. You see, the priest were there gate or the door back into community. And We see this pattern all through Scripture. Jesus often told people He healed, "Go, show yourself to the priest." For instance, in Luke chapter 5, when He heals a paralyzed man, or in Luke 17 with the ten lepers. Why? Well, Because community was incredibly important to Jesus. Still is. But watch what happens when the Pharisees get involved. Have you ever shared something incredible with someone and they didn’t seem to care, the Pharisees, Instead of celebrating this miracle, or celebrating that fact that this man is now able rot rejoin community, they're upset. They're actually angry that this man can see! They even drag his parents into it, and his poor parents are terrified. Because here's what you need to understand - one wrong word, and you're out. One wrong statement and they too would be excommunicated from community. Not just "don't come to church next week” kind of out, but completely cut off from your entire faith community. So his parents do what scared people often do - they punt, they deferred back to their son by saying "He's old enough, ask him yourself!" And when they ask the man again, you've got to admire his courage. He doesn't back down….. Jesus did this. Jesus healed me. I spent some time with the York family this week, and if you haven’t heard their testimony you need to call up and schedule a visit sometime and hear Jeffs testimony. I’m not gonna tell it because it’s his to share, but thats the expression, and the passion, and the heart I felt when I heard it… Jesus did it. But, their response? What did they do? They excommunicate him. Now, let me tell you why this is actually worse than being blind - because we were created to be people of worship, designed for community. And regardless of what our current online church culture might suggest, there's something powerful about being physically present with the body of Christ. To be cut off from that? That's like a kind of death. And for those of you listening online.. can I just plead with you.. we’re not the same without you. But the blind man, who can now see, heard these words… you were born entirely in sin, and are you trying to teach us…. The Bible says in chapter 9 verse 34, they threw him out.

And this is where I need us to stop for a moment. Because this is where I want to put a pin in our story and talk about something that affects every single one of us - and its called, shame. Because what's happening to this man isn't just about losing his community; it's about shame being heaped on top of a blessing. Brené Brown, a sociologist who's studied shame for years, calls it "the swampland of the soul." That's a pretty good description. Shame is that intense feeling that tells us we're not just wrong - but we're fundamentally flawed and unworthy of love and belonging. Thats what shame does. Think about this man's journey for a minute. He didn't choose to be born blind. He didn't choose how Jesus would heal him. He simply told the truth about what happened. Yet here he is, facing rejection and shame from the very people who should have been celebrating with him. And so, they shut the door on him and sent him away. Maybe you know what that feels like. Maybe you've experienced: The shame of a broken relationship The shame of a failure at work The shame of a past mistake Or maybe, like this man, the shame of being different in some way. But here's where the story takes a beautiful turn. Look at what happens next in chapter 9, and in verse 35: "Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him..." Stop right there. Don't miss this - what did Jesus do? ………..Jesus went looking for him. Church, I need you to hear this today: Jesus never stops looking for anyone. Ever. No matter how much shame you carry, no matter how dark life seems, no matter who has rejected you - Jesus is actively pursuing you. I know this personally. There have been times in my life when shame has felt like a heavy coat I couldn't take off. But just like Jesus found this man who was cast out, He found me. And He's still finding people today. I sat listening to Chucks testimony and I’m sure Chuck would stand today saying, Jesus found me, and he changed me, and he has invited me into this community. And Im sure this room is filled with people who would agree, and online those of you listening who would say, when I was lost, he found me. Luke 15:24 tells of parable of the lost son, Jesus says. : "For my beloved son was once dead, but now he's alive! Once he was lost, but now he is found!” Thats my life.. Think about this - our God has galaxies to sustain, universes to uphold, and over 7 billion people to care for. Yet, heaven doesn't throw a party over cosmic wonders or universal mysteries. No - do you know what makes heaven explode with joy? When one person... just one... comes home to God's love, through Christ. Let that sink in for a moment. The God who spun stars into space, who painted sunsets, who carved oceans... This God stops everything to pursue you. YOU. And that's not just beautiful - that's revolutionary. Because while religion says 'Find your way to God,' Jesus says 'I've come to find you.’ And that's exactly what we see in our text today - Jesus, as the Door, who doesn't just wait for us to find Him, but actively seeks us out…" he brings the door to us.

Now, lets look at what Jesus says in John chapter 10, verse 7: "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. Jesus isn't just making a statement here - He's dismantling an entire system. These religious leaders? They'd turned God's house into an exclusive club, and they were the bouncers at the door. For generations, they'd appointed themselves as spiritual gatekeepers. Yes, God had established the law and the priesthood, but they had twisted it. Instead of guiding people to God, they were deciding who was worthy enough to approach Him. Remember our door at the parsonage? That faulty frame that let everything in that shouldn't get in, and kept everything out that needed to get in? That's exactly what the Pharisees had done with God's law. They had built a religious system with a catastrophically faulty frame: It looked impressive on the outside They knew every rule, every sacrifice, every letter of the law But here's the tragedy - their frame wasn't secured to God's heart. They were so busy protecting the door, they missed the Door Himself standing right in front of them."

But Jesus? The frame of Jesus as the door is completely different. When Jesus says "I am the door," He's not just talking about any ordinary entrance - He's revealing the very character of God wrapped in the framework of grace. Think about His frame... Every detail crafted by Christ-like love, every element designed for our redemption:

His frame is full of grace - "For by grace you have been saved" (Ephesians 2:8) His frame overflows with mercy - "But God, who is rich in mercy" (Ephesians 2:4) His frame holds forgiveness - "In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:14) His frame radiates joy and peace - and The fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22)

What we realize is that Jesus as the door isn't just a door of religion - it's a door of constant relationship. It's not just an entrance - it's an embrace. Every other door in your life will eventually close on you, but Jesus? He's the door that will never shut you out, never wear out, and never let you down. Every door in life has a closing time - except Jesus.

But here's where we need to be honest with ourselves. If Jesus is the true door, why do we keep trying other doors in our life? Let me ask you something - and I'm preaching to myself here too - what doors are you still playing with? Maybe it’s: The door of perfection - "If I just get everything right…" The door of control - "If I can just manage everything…" The door of success - "Just one more achievement…" The door of approval - "If people just accept me…" The door of self-sufficiency - "I can handle this on my own..." Truth be told, these are the doors God has been working in my life. He’s always working in them.. the question is… am I leaving the door open for him? And You know what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13? He tells us we can walk through all these doors, gain everything the world offers, but without love - without Christ - we gain nothing…….. You know, the other night I was walking around outside of our house in the dark. and I Heard something rustling in the trees. My phone flashlight wasn't cutting it, and here I am - your pastor, a grown man - 43 years old and what do you think I did when head that sound? I ran for the bright lights of the inside of the house. Do you know why? Because when you know what real light is, you don't settle for shadows. Just like that man who was healed from blindness - once he experienced true sight, he couldn't go back to darkness. And once we experience Jesus as the true door, these other doors just don't satisfy us anymore.

Lets look at verse 9 together.. Jesus says, - "If anyone enters by me..." Do you know what that is? Its an invitation. Notice He doesn't say "if any perfect person" or "if any religious person" or "if any deserving person." Or any person made whole, or any person without a disabilities, or anything else… what does he say??? ………..He says “anyone.” Do you understand how revolutionary this was? In that moment, Jesus was speaking to everyone: To the once-blind man who'd been thrown out of community. To the disciples trying to understand And yes, even to those Pharisees who were plotting against Him I bet, he even was talking to the samaritans and the gentiles that may have been listening. Church, I wonder today - where do you find yourself in this story? Because some of us have become professional admirers of Jesus. Let me show you the difference: An admirer stands at a distance; a follower draws near An admirer takes pictures of the door; a follower walks through it An admirer knows about Jesus; a follower knows Jesus An admirer has information; a follower experiences transformation The invitation isn't just to admire the door - it's to walk through it. And this invitation? It's for ANYONE... which means it's for you, right where you are, right now. Can I speak to your heart for a moment? And I'm asking this as someone who deeply cares about your soul: If Jesus is truly THE door to life… Why are we content just standing here, looking at it? Why has our prayer life become a task to complete rather than a Father to meet? Why has our worship become a routine to endure rather than a King to celebrate? Why has God's Word become a duty to fulfill rather than a love letter to cherish?

Could it be... that we've been seduced by the world's fancy doorways? Those doors with their flashing lights and empty promises? Living off the words, when one door closes another opens.. why not follow a door that never closes? But here's what I know: You will never find satisfaction standing in doorways - any doorways. Because you weren't created to be a doorway inspector. You were created for something far greater… You were created to walk through THE Door - Jesus Himself - into the very presence of the father.

That's exactly what the Pharisees did - they were professional door admirers. They had memorized every detail, could quote every Scripture, knew every rule... but they refused to walk through the door standing right in front of them.they made their entire life about knowing the father, and the one chance to really known him personally, they refused to walk in that door. You know, I've been thinking about their work on our door. They didn't just fix it and check it off their list. They didn't just patch it up and say 'good enough.' No - they made absolutely sure that door would serve its purpose. They wanted to make certain that anyone - whether they were coming or going - could use that door freely, safely, without struggle. To be honest, they reminded me of what a Christ like life should look like. While others build barriers, they removed them While others might say 'close enough,' they went the extra mile While others might create obstacles, they created opportunities

That's exactly what Jesus promises when we enter through Him - freedom to go in and freedom to walk out and to find pasture where we find peace and rest in him alone, as our shepherd. Look at what is promised in Romans 5:8-9: "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” Notice what this actually says... 'while we were still sinners.' Not after we got better. Not once we proved ourselves worthy. Not when we finally had it all together. WHILE we were sinners. That means right where you are, in whatever state you're in, Jesus is saying, 'This door... MY door... it's for you.’ Maybe you're carrying shame - This door is for you Maybe you've failed a thousand times - This door is for you Maybe you feel completely unworthy... this door is for YOU You know what that means? It means the very things you think disqualify you from coming to Jesus are the exact reasons He's inviting you to come through His door. Because here's the beautiful truth - Jesus doesn't wait for you to be perfect to let you in. He lets you in so He can perfect you. This is what Wesley called 'going on to perfection' - not a perfection of performance, but a perfection of love. With every step through this door, with every moment in His presence, He's transforming our hearts until we love as He loves. That's why this moment is so crucial. God's prevenient grace has led you to this door. His justifying grace opens it. And His sanctifying grace? That's what happens when you walk through it - day by day, moment by moment, being transformed from glory to glory.

As Peter comes, let me close with this… There are three kinds of people here today, and I believe God has a specific word for each of you: Some of you have never really walked through the door of Jesus. You've studied it, thought about it, maybe even admired it - but you've never given Him your life. Today isn't just another Sunday; it's your day of salvation. Stop admiring, start entering. Others of us - and I include myself here - we've walked through the door but we're still playing with other doors. Those backup plans, those old habits, those "just in case" exits. Here's the truth: You can't experience the fullness of Jesus while keeping one foot in other doorways. Why not go deeper? And for those carrying shame - feeling excluded, rejected, or not good enough - hear this: Your shame says "hide" - Jesus says “come”\ Your shame says "not worthy" - Jesus says "I made you worthy” Your shame says "alone" - Jesus says "never leaving” "The door is open. The invitation is clear. And you don't have to walk through it alone. I'm here - we're here - ready to walk this journey with you. Before you leave today, let's talk. This could be your moment to move from admiring Jesus to following Jesus. Church, can I hear an Amen?"

Let's stand if you are able, and pray together… Father, I stand before You right now, and I'm reminded of that blind man who encountered Jesus. Lord, in this room today, there are people standing at different doorways, and I pray for each one of them. For those who have never walked through the door of salvation - Lord, I pray that right now, in this moment, You would remove every barrier of pride, every wall of fear, every hesitation that's holding them back. Give them the courage to stop being admirers and become followers. You have great things in store for this body… but to accomplish it, we will need people who are all in. Help us Lord, and bring to us people with hearts burning for you, but lead us to those who need you. So that they too can taste and see that you are good.

For my brothers and sisters who know You but are still playing with other doors - Jesus, we confess our divided hearts today. Forgive us for thinking we can have it both ways. Give us the strength to close every door that leads away from You, to nail them shut, and to run fully into Your arms. Bring us together Lord, to be a community. You’ve pursued us, and found us, and saved us.. all for your glory. In your precious name, amen.

Go forth today, not as admirers, but as followers. Not as spectators, but as participants. Not as those who simply saw the door, But as those who walked through it and found life. Until we meet again, keep walking in His grace, living in His mercy, and resting in His peace. Amen. *

Isolation

Let’s open our bibles to hebrews chapter 10 and find with me verse 24. And let’s read together, verses 24 and 25. I spent the last three days in Ephrata with many of my friends and colleagues at the Lead Deep conference and what I can say about that experience is this… Every one of us, in this world, today….. needs one another. We’re not meant to walk this faith journey alone.

Isolation is not healthy. Now, don’t get me wrong. There are times when isolation is healthy. For instance, Jesus spent 40 days in the desert. Isolated from others, and even dealing with temptation. But the reality to that is what? Jesus’s purpose wasn’t to isolate himself indefinitely from others, but to prepare himself for what’s ahead. Think about it… After the solitude for 40 days in the desert, in Matthew we find Jesus preaching the beatitudes.

In Mark, after the isolation, Jesus began proclaiming the good news. IN Luke, We find Jesus saying the Spirit of the Lord is on me and anointed me to preach the good news. And what do we find in all three of these accounts of Jesus after isolation? We find purpose. We find Jesus gathering the disciples. You see, isolation is never to keep you from others, but at times it prepares you a d I to become available to others.

This week at Lead Deep we examined isolation a little bit during our nightly revival services. And we learned three things about the dangers of isolation… First, when we look at unhealthy isolation we realize in those moments that there is no one to help us when we fall. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the story, “help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” Even one of our brothers in Christ, Bill Weed, his story was that he had fallen in his dark room of his apartment and he couldn’t get up.

And of course, it was his neighbor who heard him call for help and came to his aid a few hours after he had fallen. Think of Ecclesiastes 4:10: “If they stumble, the first will lift up his friend—but woe to anyone who is alone when he falls and there is no one to help him get up. “ In 1 Corinthians 11:18 it says, “In the first place, when you come together as a church .

. .” 1 Corinthians 14:23, “If, therefore, the whole church comes together . . .” Our Scripture in Hebrews 10:25 says, “… not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching”. We’re called to be together. The second danger of unhealthy isolation is that “We become vulnerable to deceptive thinking.” Isolation leaves a person vulnerable to the spiritual attacks of temptation to sin, depression, selfishness, and even anger.

There is no one around to speak good judgment and wisdom into your life. Who speaks encouraging things to you? What company do you keep? Are you hanging around people that are dreadful…where they are like, woe this and woe that. That’s usually a sign of a heart that’s needing grace. Think about that, but through the eyes of Jeremiah… He writes, 9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.

Who can understand it? The heart often wants what it wants without any thought about the repercussions. We need others to speak God's word, and goodness, and encouragement into our hearts. Thats why I’m encouraged knowing that by faith, God puts the Spirit of Christ into my heart that cries out abba father. My heart can be changed. Little by little, grace by grace, we find our hearts yearning and desiring God.

I was in my cohort yesterday, and we we’re talking about sanctification and holiness.. and I kept quiet listing and hearing everyone else’s thoughts.. and then the entire room looked at me and asked, Matthew, How do you pursue holiness… what’s holiness to you? And I answered this way.. holiness for me, is that my utmost desire in my life is to know God and to enjoy the glory of God to the fullness that which is available to me through Christ Jesus.

I’m starved for it. Many times, We think nothing of Isiah before the throne and hearing the angelic host singing Holy, Holy, Holy.. and even more, we forget that we read this part…. the Earth is Filled with His glory. If we just had eyes to see we would see a creation filled with his glory, but also the danger of realizing that The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Thirdly, the dangers of isolation is that the church is weakened. The Church isn’t as strong when its people are scattered. Just as the human body has many working parts, so the body of Christ consists of many people working together (1 Corinthians 12:12). Every part of a person’s body is needed, just as every believer is needed to fulfill God’s will. No one is dispensable. I’ve never read in the Bible the great cloud of witness was people away from each other..

to be. Cloud you’ve got to be a shape and form of something. When I read about heaven I never read how we worship separately. The church is weakened when we are isolated. It’s so easy to isolate ourselves. Especially when hurt happens. Sometimes, people hurt us. It’s a fact. Sometimes the busyness of our activities cause us to retreat to peace and quiet. Think of Elijah… defeating the false priests and then retreating with depression to the mountains.

Sometimes the fallenness of the world hurts us and we retreat to lick our wounds. And as we saw with Jesus, It’s okay to temporarily cocoon ourselves in isolated moments of prayer, but we shouldn’t camp out there permanently. But here’s the truth…. God gives us an antidote for this loneliness. And it’s this… Jesus. Think of the first part, One of my favorite names of Jesus is Emmanuel, which means God with us.

And When we invite His Spirit into our hearts, He is there with us forevermore. His Sprit leads us into times of solitude, and prayer, as he strengthens us and ready’s us fro service. And I just felt compelled today to let you know, that You are never alone because the Lord is with you. We’re never alone when God is with his people. God is with us. And he’s with us right now.

Isn’t that his promise? To be with us to the end of the age? Didn’t Jesus say, go and make disciples and I will be with you to the end of the age? The result of that antidote to loneliness is others. I was listing to Kerry our DS talk on stage yesterday and he began to speak on how he began to pray this… Jesus, I want to see you in the eyes of those I meet.

And he gave this story of when he would visit this guy in jail and they would pt their hand on the window before they would depart and he would pray for them.. but one time Kerry asked, instead me praying for you, would you pray for me. And he said he looked into the eyes of that man, and he saw Jesus in him. Do you know act Kerry was doing?

He was storing up love and good works in the heart of the other man. Hebrews 10:23 says, And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. You see, when we have Jesus in us, the antidote to our loneliness, the result of His presence is that it draws us to others. You see, Jesus becomes our main focus. He becomes our fixed point. And holiness is moment by moment in our lives getting closer and closer to him.

Think of what Jesus says on the cross in John. “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” He draws us. And when we come and follow him, he makes us his disciples. Do you know something… when it comes to discipleship, evangelism and missions… I believe we got it all wrong. Are you a disciple of Jesus? If so, can I test that this morning…

??? A disciple of Jesus has three characteristics.… The first characteristic is that they are people who reach out to others. I’ve been thinking about this. Jesus would send his disciples out two by two to preach the good news, and heal. Ya know, I don’t see that much anymore. The Mormons do a great job at this… but do we? The second characteristic is that they Grow learn to feed themselves and others.

I’ve learned in ministry there’s a lot of people that say. I want to know more. I want to go deeper in the word. I’ve heard people even say to me, I’m not being fed here. And I’ve heard all my pastor friends say the same thing. They have people coming and saying, I’m not being fed. At some point the disciple has got to begin feeding themselves. I mean, come on.

I’ve been around christians who’s been christians there entire life that have said, I'm not being fed. If by now you’re not being fed, maybe you need to pick up the spoon yourself instead of expecting others to always be feeding you. It sounds harsh, but it’s truth. Think of what Paul speaks of to the Corinthians, I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.

Indeed, you are still not ready. There are many christians like this bird I saw in a video the other dya.. watch this. The bird thought the worm was just supposed to hop in it’s mouth. The problem we see is that so many Christians come, and they open their mouths expecting steak, and prime rib and this buffet and sometimes all Jesus has for them is manna. Sometimes, you’ve got to use your hands to feed yourself.

Because you can not fed others if you’re not willing to be fed yourself. And that leads to the third characteristic of a disciples.. Gifts. Willingly use your gifts for church and community. I was at shady maple this week, and I went up to the prime rib counter and there was a guy named dan there. His job, was to serve and slice for us prime rib. I guess they dont trust us with slicing our own prime rib..

maybe they know I would take a steak portion instead of a slice portion. I looked dan in the eyes, and said, Dan, I appreciate you being here today, at your job. Because without you being here, I wouldn’t have someone to serve me my lunch. And so, for that… I want you to know, I see you, and I appreciate you. You could tell he needed to hear that. Serving sometimes is hard because we do so without any recognition.

I know we’re to give the glory to GOd, but understand this.. people are our commodity at church. We’re here for people, for one another. Are you a disciple? Jesus says, my disciples will love one another and Serve one another. Jesus says, my disciples will not sit on the sidelines and watch another suffer. But in my name go to them and care for them. They will have compassion like me, and look like me, and sound like me.

And the fact is.. we need the presence of God for all of this. We need presence more than performance. That’s another sermon we heard this weekend. It’s staying late. It’s communicating with those God has planted here. Let’s do life together. *

Formed by His Life

Let’s open our bibles up to Galatians. So, you’ll find corinthians one and two, and then the book of Galatians. And we will be in chapter 5 together today. When you find the book of Galatians could someone read for us, Galatians chapter 5 verses 16 through 18. (Read Verse) So this is week three, taking about what it means to be transformed and made into the image of Jesus. It’s examining the first part of our vision, carrying Jesus.

In the KJV of the Bible, in the book of proverbs chapter 29 and in verse 18, it reads this… (18 Where there is no vision, the people perish..) Now, let me take just a moment to explain that.. What governs your life. Why do you make the decisions you make? How many habits are there in our life that are bad, but not just bad habits, but how many habits are there in your life that are just neutral?

That we don’t even think about it. How many times we just believe something because it’s all we’ve ever been taught? We never question why we do this or that. It’s just is. Its how I’ve always done it. A church needs vision just as much as a Christian needs to have faith. We need a passion for something with direction. Otherwise passion without direction is no more than being a ship adrift out at sea.

This week, we’re talking about being a church formed by the “Life of Jesus.” Last week we explored being formed by his love, this week we find out what it means to be formed by his life. That means next week we look into being formed by his leadership. But Let’s start here… “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” In 2009, Simon Sinek gave a Ted Talk and immediately spring-boarded himself into notoriety.

Incase our wondering what a Ted Talk is, it’s a platform where speakers from different areas in life that range from education to industry leaders and from sociology to religion. And the purpose of a Ted Talk, in my opinion, is to teach the listener something about that specific field of study within a 20 minute window. And before you think to yourself.. well I wish our pastor did ted talks on Sunday mornings instead of Matthew’s long winded talks…

just keep in mind that on average, it takes 250 hours to prepare for one 20 minute ted talk. I ain’t got that kind of time to prepare each week. But Simon say’d, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it." Let me explain… Pretend you have a cupcake business. You’re why isn’t just to make cakes. You’re why is to create family moments. So your why is the result of what you do.

Think of it like Alicia and I’s wedding. I remember the cake, I remember what it looked like but to be honest, I don’t remember what it taste like. What I do remember is the moment Alicia and I shared together taking our vows to love one another for life, and I remember being at the table with a white cake and her smashing cake in my face. You see, I don’t remember the taste of the cake but I do remember the moment we shared.

and So, to succeed, you don’t share how you made the cake. Instead, you show a family making memories around your cake. Does that make sense.. You don’t share the recipe, you share the result it had created. And that works in the secular world. To share results but here’s where I’m struggling. You’re why is empty if it doesn’t have a passionate what. DO you get what Im saying.. we can (DO) the why all day long, but if it’s not thrusted forward because of our (WHAT) then our why becomes passionless.

I’m going to let you all in to a place where my heart is hurting.. so be kind to me…. Be patient and I ask for you to be forgiving… as I openly repent and ask for forgiveness. Over the last 5 years as your pastor. I’ve recently noticed that I have spent the last 5 years preaching on what we should be doing and very little time teaching on why and how we do it.

I’ve preached on why we should follow Jesus, and why we should love one another and why we should be going hard after the loss in our community. And I’ve preached on how love can grow the church. But I’ve spent very little time on how we should do those things. So what I am saying is this… over the last 5 years I’ve been trying to teach the result and not enough time on sharing the recipe on how we get there together.

And that’s on me. And what I’m talking about is “meaningful discipleship.” Being formed into the image of Christ… being formed into the Imago Dei. That’s our why. Our why is to be holy as Christ is holy. To love as Christ has love. To witness fruit being produced in our loves, but what’s the recipe to get there? And that’s my fault, and I’m asking for your forgiveness. Because let’s be honest…

the quote, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” It’s a great truth for marketing, but not so great for maturing. So the book of Galatians is really helpful in teaching us the recipe to develop and mature our why as a church and as christians. Listen, People are attracted to our why… but for them to be attracted to our why, we’ve gotta be passionate about our what.

We’ve got to be just as passionate about the journey we take together to get to where and who God is forming us into as a church. A key verse for this is found in verse 19, look with me there. 19 My children, I am again suffering labor pains for you until Christ is formed in you. Paul says my children… it’s an intimate way of saying.. those of you I love.

I love you and I want to make sure I’ve given to you the best chance of succeeding in life. Isn’t that how we love our children as parents. We want you as our children, to experience and have the things we never did. But here’s the issue… so many times our kids experience the result of that, but never experience the hardships that we take to get is as a family there.

For instance, Our kids, have been to Jersey, Colorado, Puerto Rico, Florida, Virginia beach, Baltimore. And not to mention all the extra stuff, like Disney, and Knenobles and Hershey Park and everything else we’ve done as a family. I’ve never done any of these things as a kid growing up. My best friend as an 8 year old was a basset hound, a stick and 500 acres to explore with adventures.

That’s it. But our kids don’t see the long hours of work, they don’t understand the sacrifices of letting go of Alicia and I’s wants so that they can have what they want. The truth is, many times, they witness the result of our fun trips, but they hardly ever understand the recipe it took to get there. When Pauls says, My dear children, It’s a way for someone to come to a group of people with a fatherly approach to love and guide them as a church.

And he goes, I’m suffering labor pains. And every woman listening is like… are you sure about that Paul… Us guys we go, man colds are the same as giving birth.. right? Ladies you just dont understand the the depth of a man cold.. it’s awful… and the ladies are like… you sure about that guys… hahah But listen, ladies… could you imagine and resonating with someone saying… I love you so much that I want to see Jesus formed in you so badly that it hurts like birthing pains.

That’s how much I want to see Christ being formed in you. To me, since im never going to experience child birth and only hearing about it, It reminds me that Paul had a great passion to see Christ in others. mY prayer is that we as a churhc would have that same passion. To see us, as a churhc grow in Christ from one glory to the next, but also have a great passion to see Christ in others as well.

He wants to see Christ formed in us, but here’s the issue. We’re either formed by Christ, or were formed by the world. There are no grey areas… Ao, Paul goes on to share with us two realities that form us.. First, Let’s look together. Find chapter 5, and lets look at verse 19 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar.

I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.. That’s the work of the flesh.. Now look with me in verses 22.. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. Paul is saying to the Galatians if you practice the flesh, the result is, these works of the flesh.

This is very interesting… because I want us to understand something… First, what does he mean by the flesh? The flesh is our primal desires. A lot of people make a mistake and say it’s the body. That’s wrong.The flesh is not the body but the primal desires that consume us and move us towards self gratification. This is why we’ve been talking about habits. What are things in our life that we are either naturally drawn to, or habits that we do naturally and without even knowing?

Second, look at how the flesh grows and is maintained in our life… its found in verse 21. He says, as I warned you before, those those who PRACTICE such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. The key word is PRACTICE. If we practice such things, there is no kingdom inheritance. And I’m just floored by this… because I wonder how many fleshly things in my life I practice and I don’t even know it.

How many of us practice these fleshly habits that lead to death an we just don’t know we do it. And did you notice this… When Paul speaks of the Spirit he doesn’t say anything about practice as much as he reminds us that the Spirit forms us. What do I mean by that? Look with me again, in verse 16… Walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desires of the flesh.

Now look in verse 18, if you are led by the Spirit you’re not under the law. And one more, find verse 25, if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. If the result is either the works of the flesh or the fruit of the Spirit.. and the works of the flesh is practiced, but the fruit of the Spirt is what forms us, that leads me to the conclusion that it’s not what I do that sanctifies and makes me holy, Spiritual Fruit isn’t produced on my own as something I gain myself.

No… God produces it. So the question being asked is this… which result are you wanting in your life? I believe it’s even better than just practicing some sort of habits to become holy, but practicing the presence of God. If you dont mind, I’m gonna go to John chapter 4, and look at verse 4… it says, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” Nowlet look at John 15, which is the great priestly prayers of Jesus before the cross…

what echos do we find here? Let’s read verses 4-5. 4 Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.

This language of the Spirit, forming us, and molding us isn’t by just practice, but intentional practice of abiding in His presence. This is holiness preaching folks… I figured by now I’d hear some amens. In Johns gospel, the The word “abide” comes from the Greek menó, which according to Strong’s Concordance means to stay, abide, or remain. Others liken the word to “dwell” or “rest.” Where did we hear that language?

A couple weeks ago right? In Matthews gospel when Jesus says, come to me and you will find rest. Take my yoke upon you and do what? Learn from him. What do we learn, if you remember it’s not to find greater status, which is what the flesh drives us towards. To be self satisfied. No! He calls us to come to him to become humble in heart and lowly. Abiding, or remaining, in Christ means believing, trusting, or welcoming Christ.

It is fully attaching ourselves to Him, it’s being grafted in and drawing our everything for life, from Him. That’s what walking in the Spirit is, that’s what is being led by the Spirit. We walk in Christ. We are led by Christ. The yoke keeps us in step with that who is leading us. And get this, Paul says in Galatians, “to live by the Spirit. We live, because we’re abiding in Him.

But How do we walk by the Spirit?? To walk in the Spirit, we must counter our fleshly habits with the practices of Jesus that leads us daily into the presence of Jesus. So how do we grow in Christ? And how do we do it together? Well I have three thoughts on this, First, Trying relies on willpower but trusting rests in God’s power. When we live in the habit of trying, the power of motivation is driven by insecurity and fear.

I’m sure we have all heard and may even have said this before. I’ll try to be more Christ like. I’ll try to pray more. I’ll try to give more. I’ll try to read more. I’ve even heard people say, I’ll try to be entirely sanctified. And what happens when we try hard and we fail? We get mad at God. That’s because we’ve made our trying the means to gaining holiness.

Usually, People who are trying get angry with God when circumstances go wrong because they think they deserve a comfortable life from God. Those who trust struggle when circumstances go wrong, but they know God is still in control and things will ultimately be okay. Every day we get to choose whether we will approach God through trying or through trusting. One leads to identity and self-worth on how they perform and unavoidably leads to death, and the other has their identity and self-worth centered on Jesus which leads to life.

Which practice are you going to pursue? Secondly, Christlike character is comprehensive, not compartmentalized. To understand what I just said, we’ve got to understand what it means when Paul gave us the list of the fruit of the Spirit. Have you ever noticed that this word fruit is singular? It’s not plural. It’s not fruits of the Spirit. It’s fruit. Why is that? It’s wrong for us to go, “Well, today I had plenty of moments where God gave me opportunities of peace, and I did well, but I need to work more on self control.

And This isn’t one of those moments where we go, well I guess I’m only as strong as my weakest fruit. What we got understand is that these fruit like self control, peace, gentleness patience and so forth are all being given to us at the same time, in the same way, from the same Spirit that is the same spirit in all of us. What we learn is that God gives his wholeness of love, and when he gives the wholeness of His love, joy, peace and the rest of the fruit all come with that package.

God never gives love, and not enough patience for today. When we find rest in the love of GOd, we find all the fruit in his fruit salad. It’s comprehensive which means it’s complete and whole. God doesn’t compartmentalize his love and we go and pick and choose what we want. when we’re in his love, we love, because he first loved us and he gives his whole self to us..

maybe we should trust in giving our whole self to him because he gives the wholeness of himself to us? And lastly, Dwelling in God’s love keeps the practice of presence from drudgery. Jesus say in John 15:11 “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Obedience without love is nothing but a chore, or a duty. Have you ever noticed that God is concerned about our joy?

He wants us to be happy. He desires for us to be full of joy. My joy is not little in his eyes, but rather essential for a life that pleases and glorifies God. It’s essential that we find our joy and satisfaction in God’s son, Jesus. That’s who gives us life. And to me, being loved by Jesus is better than the any fleshly pleasures of entertainment, or of the body.

And so, this life I pursue, is a life in Him. The creator and sustainer of my salvation, my joy and my life. My life, is being formed by His life. You and I will never find a better life, without the life of Jesus forming and shaping us into the likeness of HIs life. It begins like this… Begin today to be passionate about he process while seeking the result.

Because if others around you see you passionate about your process to find your what, they’ll be curious to know more about your why. And those are opportunities to share your faith with others. That’s the importance of why we take communion. Communion is more than just remembering, it’s believing by faith that everything is better in Jesus. And it was his body that was given for us, in remmberence that he died and was broken for our sins.

He who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” And the cup, was poured out for us, and by faith, represent the blood. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. He willingly shed his own blood not for his own sins (he had none), but for ours. Each of us here today is only able to partake in this covenant and communion because of what Jesus did and continues to do for each of us.

As Paul says, in our Scripture today, for us who were called to be free, don’t use it for the flesh, but s a opportunity to serve one another through love. This communion reminds us that this love isn’t to be wasted but a love that is to be cherished. It restores relationships and leads all into mercy and forgiveness. Let’s us remember that today, that we are Christs, and he is ours.

Bread: The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, broken for you, preserve you blameless, unto everlasting life. Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful. Blood: The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, shed for you, preserve you blameless unto everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful. Prayer *

Truth, Life and Way

Let’s open our bibles together to find John chapter 14. And find with me verses 1. John chapter 14, and I want to begin reading in verse 1. And if you can and if you’re able, lets stand in honor of the Lords word this morning. John chapter 14, and beginning in verse 1. Here is the word of the Lord…. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way? 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” Heavenly Father. May your word be planted in our hearts this morning as we find the treasure of your presence. Help us in this hour find the way, and to know the truth to have everlasting life, in the name of Jesus. And all of God’s people said… amen. Grace is compelling. I read an article a few years ago that has impacted ministry for me and how I lead people to walk with the Lord. The article was about a pastor who had moved his family across the nation to Chicago and he began to get into the habit of going to Starbucks everyday. What’s amazing about moments like this, is that in everyday life, if you show up enough times to the same place enviably you will begin to learn names, and build friendships and relationships with others. And this one day, this pastor realized that there was another woman that had the same habit as he had. Everyday, at the same time, both of them would come to the same Starbucks and have coffee. And one day, they happened to be in line together side by side and one conversation began the journey to more conversations. Over time, this pastor and woman would meet at this Starbucks and they began to learn a lot about each other. She learned that he was a pastor and professor of religion and had moved his family to the area, and he learned that she and her husband were well educated self professing atheist. The pastor also noticed that although they were atheist, they were also wonderful, and loving people who were generous and kind. He also realized that they were remarkable parents that have the kind of relational gravity that draws people in. And one day, as this pastor was grading papers, this lady comes over and simply ask, what was the topic for your students. And so the pastor, says, “I had my students write about faith in the 21st century.” A thought sparked in her and she asked the pastor, “The way I see it, there are only two reasons people come to faith: they have some sort of crisis, or they are born into it.” And so the pastor paused, and thought to himself and he began to disassemble this statement from his atheist friend. And then he thought, For a self-proclaimed atheist, religious faith was being run through two filters. 1: Faith was either the result of some out-of-control situation in a person’s life that left them weak, vulnerable, exposed, and desperately grasping for God— 2: or it was outside their choosing, the result of their family of origin or nurturing environment. So the pastor leaned over to the woman and said, you’re right. But if you would allow me, could I offer you one more option? The woman nodded yes to the man, and so the pastor said to her, “Could we also experience faith because some people are compelled by it.”

When I read this story, I began to think about this phrase, being compelled by faith. And so I ask myself… Is the life I live compelling to others? What I mean to ask is this,.. do others see the faith in my life as compelling? We live in a world filled with choices. And paths, and directions.

And the truth is, we walk a lot of paths in life don’t we? When it comes to paths, grace meets us in different ways. Think about your life… and the paths you’ve taken… there are inclines and declines. there are sharp turns and tripping hazards. There can be both fear and excitement, and also purposes around each corner. In this current path were experiencing, we’re on a new journey as a church together, with a new pastor, and new relationships and new friendships. This is a new path and a new journey for you and for our family. It’s the same for the disciples. Throughout the gospels, they’ve been walking a path with Jesus that was leading Jesus to the cross. I don’t think they fully knew that. That they were escorting Jesus on the path to the cross. But in this moment, Jesus, was about to go into the high priestly prayers and reveal some of his prayers to the disciples about how he prays for the oneness with the father, and how he prays for the oneness to be known by his disciples and if you can believe it, even in these high priestly prayers, he prays for you and I. Just one of the reasons why I love the book of John, because Jesus prays for me and the makes my heart tender. But up to this point in the gospel of John, Jesus was standing at a crossroads with his disciples, and there was a choice that needed to be made. This intersection of grace and choice isn't new. Many thousands of years ago… hear what God said to Jeremiahs… This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls” (Jeremiah 6:16 NIV). What we come to realize, in our faith is that our faith is a journey. It’s a journey. It’s a journey that leads to many crossroads in life, and we called to ask, which is the good way, and to walk the ancient paths that are laid out before us. A journey where love leads and grace guides. And each one of us right now, is standing at a crossroads. And my question for you is this.. which way are you going to take? But here's the beautiful thing about grace.. Grace is an invitation. It’s an invitation to step out from where we’ve been and into the story of where Jesus is leading.

There’s another place in the book of John where we see Jesus interacting with people at the crossroads of life and it can be found in the first chapter. In the first chapter of John, John the Baptist was standing with two of his disciples and they heard him say this, Look, the Lamb of God. And so, they heard John say this, and then they followed Jesus. Now, in verse 38, look nat how grace invites, and Jesus b begins this conversation. Jesus says, what are you looking for? And they said to him, Rabbi, where are you staying… Now, listen to what Jesus says. It’s found in verse 39.. Jesus says, Come and you’ll see. When Jesus says 'Come and see,' it's both an invitation of grace and an expression of love. He doesn't demand or force - He invites. That's what love does. Love his never meant to be forced. In John chapter 1, having heard about Jesus from John the Baptist, a couple of Johns followers run off to inquire of Jesus. They want to know a bit about the destination. So, they ask Jesus…. Jesus, where are you staying. Where will this take us? Jesus’s response… come and see. Don’t you love this. Jesus could have easily said, well.. we will get a lot of walking in. We will heal some people, probably be a bit hungry at times. Do a lot of praying. Jesus could have taken this moment and front loaded the calling with all the great things they will witness… the lives they will see changed, the amazing transfiguration and a dead friend rising from the grave. He could have said, I’m going to be crucified and then be raised up in three days. And to top it off, in 40 days or so after the resurrection I will place my spirit within you. Isn’t that compelling enough? But no, what does he do? He simply says,** come and see.** Come… witness for yourself. Because it was never about the destination as much as it was about the journey of the relationship. Just last week I had a meeting with a person and they asked about the church.. and I simply said, I can tell you all the great things I know and see for myself, but to get a perspective for yourself… why don’t you come and see. Truly, what we’re witnessing is this… the invitation to come and see is just a way to peak our curiosity. But it's so much more - it's an invitation to experience something that can't be adequately described in words or marketed with programs. This invitation isn't costing you anything... except perhaps your preconceptions. `There's no obligation, no commitment required up front - just an open door to witness something authentic. It's the same gentle invitation Jesus offered: not a sales pitch, not a list of requirements, but simply an opportunity to experience something real, and for themselves. And maybe that's why it's so powerful - because in a world of endless marketing and pressure to commit, this invitation stands out in its simplicity and freedom.

But at some point..when it comes to faith, and discisplhip.. a decision will need to be made… Look with me in chapter 1, and find with me verse 43: The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee, he found Philip and told him, to Follow me. Grace turns your life upside down with the call “Follow me.” You see, Grace doesn’t end at the stage of curiosity and invitation, at some point, it will call for commitment. If you Hang out with Jesus long enough, at some point, grace will meet you in a new way. That’s the thing about grace. It’s not a one-time event or simple transaction. Grace is the consistent, steady thread of God’s goodness and favor, inviting us, calling us—wooing us, if you like—into the fullness for which you and I have been created. Now, Here’s where things get real very quickly. When Jesus says, “Follow me,” this is where we experience “costly grace”. DO you know what costly grace is? Costly grace is grace that cost you something. For most of us, when we get an invitation what does it cost us? Sometimes it’s time. Sometimes its money for a gift. Sometimes it’s gas in our car to go. But if you ever think about it, these are things that minimally cost us something…. But when Jesus turns to them and says, Follow me. Here in this moment, they came face to face with everything that’s in the way. Here’s the moment when the call to follow we’ve come to recognize that we’ve been toting around quite a bit of luggage. Do you know the story of the rich young ruler? It can be read in Mark chapter 10… the rich young ruler approached Jesus with enthusiasm, knowing the law. … But Jesus, looking at him with love, put His finger on the one thing holding him back - his wealth. What started as curiosity became a crisis of commitment. The invitation to follow revealed the weight of what he'd been carrying all along - not just his money, but his identity, security, and status wrapped up in those riches. In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Discipleship can tolerate no conditions which might come between Jesus and our obedience to him.”

The call to follow is the call to abandon authorship of our own story. Think about that… would you be willing to give up the fact that for how many years you've lived, are you willing to give up the authorship of your story? For 20, 30, 40, maybe 50+ years you've been writing your own narrative Making your own choices, planning your own path And then Jesus comes along and essentially says, "Hand me the pen” That's more than just a casual decision - it's a complete surrender of control. I was thinking about this yesterday during morning prayer,… I was thinking… where can we see costly grace vs cheap grace play out in real life? Cheap grace says "I'll follow Jesus as long as it doesn't interfere with my plans” Costly grace says "I'll change my plans to follow Jesus” Cheap grace wants the forgiveness without the transformation Costly grace embraces the uncomfortable process of being made new Cheap grace keeps Jesus at arm's length as a helpful advisor Costly grace invites Him in as Lord of every aspect of our lives

And you know, we see this exact struggle play out in Scripture, especially in Peter's life. Just look at Peter, in our Scripture this morning right when Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life, just a few scriptures before that, Peter stands up and tells Jesus in front of all the disciples, I would give up my life for you. I don't believe Peter knew what he's saying. "Have you ever said something that sounded right, but your heart wasn't really in it? It's like promising something without understanding what that promise really means. Think about it - Peter did this. He stood there and told Jesus, 'I would give up my life for you.' The words were right. The sentiment was right. But Peter didn't really understand what he was saying. He hadn't counted the cost. He was saying what he thought he should say, rather than what he was actually prepared to do. It's a bit like making a New Year's resolution - we say all the right words about changing our lives, but until our heart is truly ready for that change, they're just words. Or maybe closer to home - like when we tell God 'I surrender all' during worship. The words are absolutely right... but have we really considered what the word 'all' really means?” And here's what makes this moment even more revealing about Peter's heart. If you notice what Peter is saying, "I would give up my life for you"… Do you know what he's doing? He's only mimicking what Jesus had said earlier in chapter 10.… In all honesty, Peter was a good student But if you recall, Jesus said to the crowd after healing the blind man, "I am the good shepherd and the good shepherd lays down his LIFE for his sheep.” Meaning, Jesus would give his very last breath so that the sheep would be safe. Peter was willing to say it, but not live it. He wasn't willing to really give up his life. And Jesus calls him out and says in verse 38, "Peter, are you sure about that? Before the rooster crows three times you will deny me."

To often in our life as disciples we say the right thing, but with a wrong heart. Our mind says, I love Jesus…. But our heart says I still love my old life more. You see, to come and follow will will always cost you. It's not just about adding Jesus to our existing life. It's about surrendering our existing life to Jesus.

Why? Well look at verse 42 in chapter one. This is the best part.. Yes, faith cost you.. discipleship cost you. But look at what happens. When Jesus saw him, he said, you are Simon, Son of John. You will be called Cephas, which is translated as Peter. Grace transforms your life through the promise of, “You will be.” What started as a compelling invitation moved to a life-upending call that leads us to a heart-changing promise. When we follow Jesus long enough, our life will be changed. Have you ever noticed that the closer the people in the Gospel stories came to Jesus, the less they remained the same? Simon the fisherman becomes Peter the rock Saul the persecutor becomes Paul the apostle Mary Magdalene the tormented becomes Mary the first witness of the resurrection And this same transforming power is still at work today - taking who we are and reshaping us into who we will be The beauty is that Jesus doesn't just see us as we are, and where we are - He sees us as we will be. When we walk with Jesus, He gradually changes us from the inside out. If you're feeling stuck in old patterns, maybe it's time to ask Him to help you see where He wants to work in your life.. Because I would ask you, is it your way or Gods way? Christ is but the only way to battle sin in your life. There is no other way, or truth about it. Christ is the only way to battle sin. Not one way, Jesus is the only way. And it’s easy for a man or woman to break away from some sins. You can break away from swearing, you can break away from some drinking and evil habits and ungodly desires. But there is only one way to deeply root out our sin… and its Jesus. God wants to do something even deeper... And yes, this deeper work will cost you. You will not be the same.

Jesus looks at Peter and he says, You will be… You see, Peter didn't just receive a new name. Jesus took authorship over his life, transforming him from who he was into who he was meant to become. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus keeps making this promise: 'You will be.' Not just different. Not just changed. But Mine. It's a promise of both transformation and belonging. Through Jeremiah, God whispers 'I have loved you with an everlasting love' - that's the foundation” Through Hosea, He declares 'I am the Lord your God... besides me there is no savior' - that's the relationship And Jesus promises 'I am with you always' - that's the journey” This is what Paul understood when he wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that anyone in Christ becomes a new creation. It's not just about changing what we do - it's about becoming who God always meant us to be. And here's the beautiful thing: this change isn't an act of your will. It is grace moving down into the core of who you are, transforming you from the inside out. But it all began with an invitation to come and see, that led to the surrendering call to follow, that takes us on this journey of transforming us into the milkiness of Jesus with the promise of you will be. My question to you is this… what crossroads are you at? Are you still at the "come and see" stage, just curious about who Jesus is? Or are you hearing that challenging call to "follow me," counting the cost of what it means to truly surrender? Maybe you're in that space of transformation, experiencing both the pain and joy of becoming new? Wherever you are, remember - Jesus sees not just who you are, but who you will be.

I want to end with this one last call to be missional… as Peter comes up… Throughout this journey we've talked about today, from 'come and see' to 'you will be,' we discover what Jesus meant when He said 'I am the way, the truth, and the life.’ He is the Way - offering that first gentle invitation of grace to 'come and see.' He is the Truth - that calls us to follow, even when it costs us everything. He is the Life - that transforms us from who we are into who we will be This is what grace does - it meets us on the way, shows us truth, and brings us into new life. And the beautiful thing is… that The final part of this journey is to live on the road to heaven as witnesses of this grace we receive to others. Grace sends us out to be witnesses and ambassadors with the command to “Go and do.” Through our lives, our actions, our attitudes, the words we speak, the social media posts we write, the love of neighbors, the justice we pursue, the dignity we extend, the forgiveness we give, the peace we make, and the joy we exhibit, people are given a glimpse of this compelling grace, thorough our lives that have received grace first. And let me just say this.. it’s not going to be easy. This journey isn't always easy. We'll encounter challenges and resistance, both within ourselves and from others. But remember - where sin abounds, grace abounds even more. Jesus is worth it. Because he is the only way, he is the truth and he is our life. How wonderful it is to know that love, came down to find us at the crossroads of life. Lost in our ways & hurting and needing life… and how wonderful it is, that he offers to walk this life with us, and in us. If your to ask me.. thats compelling!

Lets stand together… And now, as we leave this place, remember - we are called to Be Grace Made Visible. John tells us that "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, full of grace and truth." Just as Jesus made God's grace visible by walking among us, we're called to make His grace visible in our communities today. That's your mission this week… be grace made visible. Meet others at their crossroads, and show them the good way. Show them how to walk in it... that's relational evangelism. Just as someone once met you with grace, be that grace for someone else. Until next week: Go in grace, walk in love, and Be Grace Made Visible. Amen?

Father, We thank you for your grace that found us at our own crossroads. Thank you for not just giving us directions, but for walking with us on this journey. Lord, as we leave this place, help us to be living examples of your grace in a world that desperately needs it. Give us eyes to see others as you see them - not just as they are, but as they will be. Help us remember that just as you met us with "come and see," we too can invite others to experience your transforming love. Give us courage to live out costly grace, wisdom to surrender the pen of our lives to you, and faith to trust your authorship of our story. And now, may the God of all grace, who called us to his eternal glory in Christ, after we have suffered a little while, perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. In Jesus' name, Amen.

As you go this week: May grace find you at every crossroad May truth guide your every step And may the life of Christ shine through you Until all can see His grace made visible through your life. *

Jesus as Our Champion

I want to invite you to open your Bibles to Mark chapter 11. You know, there is nothing like this Word in all the world. It's why we gather together in a way that doesn't make sense to a lot of people—to open up a book and gather around to read it together. In our generation, this has almost become a lost form of fellowship and anticipation. Think about it: this is the Word of God, passed down for generations, century after century after century, thousands of years. And yet, it's still relevant in our lives today, right now. I've had three weeks off from preaching, and during this time, I've used it to pray. I've always promised that I would never become political at the pulpit—there's no place for that here. But during these past three weeks, I've watched as nations across the world have been scrambling to understand the political scene with tariffs, and I see all kinds of hurt and damage happening throughout our country and nation. We’ve seen tragedy strike every corner of the world with earthquakes and tornadoes, which is followed by all kinds of people shouting, often with harsh opinions about policies and politicians and how one should react to these situations. There is so much focus on politics right now, and I think we're in danger of missing the whole point as Christians among all of this. In the passage we're about to read from 2,000 years ago, the Jewish people were being oppressed by an unjust Roman Empire. These Jewish people were looking for political solutions. Actually, they were looking for a political Messiah who would restore the kingdom back to Israel—no more oppression, no more bondage under the current administration, but a free nation under the rule of God. I want you to keep in mind that Jesus was gaining so much attention and momentum as potentially being this political savior. Many people thought, "He's the one... he's the Messiah. He's the political savior we've been waiting for who's going to overthrow the government and rule!” So let me show you what happened. This is called the triumphal entry, found in Mark 11: "Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, 'Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’" "And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, 'What are you doing, untying the colt?' And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, 'Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!’" "And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.” Now, what's happening here is remarkable. Imagine this scene: two very different men are entering the city of Jerusalem. From the west came Pontius Pilate. If you were there, you'd hear him before you saw him. The stomping of war horses, the clanking of armor, the snap of imperial banners in the wind. Pilate rides in with all the pomp and circumstance of Rome—soldiers in formation, weapons gleaming. He's making a statement, especially during this unpredictable Passover season when Jerusalem is packed with pilgrims. And His message is clear: Rome is in charge. Don't even THINK about causing trouble. But from the east, something entirely different is happening. Here comes Jesus of Nazareth, riding not on a war horse but on a borrowed donkey, surrounded not by soldiers but by fishermen and can you believe it… tax collectors. The crowd is waving palm branches and shouting "Hosanna!" They're treating him like a king, but what they don't understand is that this humble king is deliberately riding toward his death. SO, get this picture… Two men entering Jerusalem. Two champions representing two completely different kingdoms. Two entirely different approaches to power. And here’s what I want us to think about today: Every day, we face a choice between these two champions. This isn't just ancient history. This is your marriage when your spouse hurts you. Do you assert your rights and prove your point? Or do you choose vulnerability and forgiveness? This is your workplace when someone takes credit for your idea. Do you scheme to get even? Or do you continue serving with integrity? This is your parenting when your teenager pushes every button you have. Do you exert control and dominance? Or do you lead with patience and grace even when it feels like weakness? Every day, in a hundred small ways, we choose which champion we're following. And over time, those choices shape who we become.

The truth is, power doesn't create character—it reveals it. Think about that for a moment. When someone gets a promotion at work, or when someone wins an election, or when someone suddenly comes into money—their true character doesn't suddenly change. What changes is that we get to see who they really were all along. You see, we can hide our true character behind many different things in this life, but there are always outside forces, and outside circumstances that reveal to the world your true internal character. Think of it like a tube of toothpaste. What happens when you squeeze a tube of toothpaste? Toothpaste comes out, right? But the pressure didn't create the toothpaste—it was already in there. The pressure just revealed what was inside all along. Power and pressure work the same way with us. When we face difficult choices, when we have the opportunity to serve ourselves or serve others, what comes out is what is already in our hearts. Or, what about being around people that don’t agree with what we agree with.. often times we become abrasive, or snippy with them. And that's what we see so clearly in this contrast between Jesus and Pilate. One man had all the political power in the region but couldn't stand firm for what was right when tested. The other appeared to have no power at all, yet, he demonstrated incredible strength of character by remaining true to his purpose even when it cost him everything. As Jesus himself said: "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”

Now, I'd like for you to look with me in John chapter 18, verses 33-38. This is the face-to-face encounter between Jesus and Pilate. Eventually, they meet. These two champions who came into Jerusalem meet face to face.. lets begin in verse 33… 33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” 34 “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?” 35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?” 36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” 37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” 38 “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. I want us to see this exchange between these two champions and what happens? Jesus stands firmly on truth as something real, something worth living and dying for. This wasn't just a philosophical position for Him. When He stood before Pilate, facing torture and death, He didn't compromise or look for the politically expedient answer. He declared, "For this reason I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth.” And how did Pilate respond? "What is truth?" The cynical question of a man who had reduced truth to whatever was useful in the moment. Do you see the contrast? One Champion sees truth as relative, as a tool to be manipulated for advantage. The Champion sees truth as absolute, as something worth sacrificing everything for. We face this same choice every day. Our culture constantly tells us that truth is personal, subjective, whatever works for you. "Your truth" and "my truth" as if truth changes from person to person.

But when pressure comes, that's when we see what we really believe about truth. Look with me in Matthew 27:24 (NIV): "When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, 'I am innocent of this man's blood,' he said. 'It is your responsibility!’" Can you imagine? The most powerful man in the region, with armed soldiers at his command, and he caves to public pressure. Now contrast this with Jesus in Luke 22:42 (NIV). When facing the cross in Gethsemane, Jesus prays: "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." That's real courage. That's real character. Jesus was honest about His anguish—He asked if there was another way. But when faced with the ultimate pressure, He aligned Himself with truth and with His Father's purpose, even when it cost Him everything. The difference between these two men isn't just about positions—it's about what happens to a heart when power becomes your purpose.. Paul describes Jesus' approach perfectly in Philippians 2:5-8 (NIV): "In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” Paul reveals something extraordinary about Jesus and true power. The One who had ALL power - who was "in very nature God" - didn't cling to that power. He didn't exploit it. Instead, He emptied Himself. He took the nature of a servant. He chose obedience even to death on a cross. Think about it this way: Pilate's position looked powerful, but when tested, he gave in to the crowd—choosing what was easy over what was right, choosing self-preservation over justice. His power was actually weakness disguised as strength. Jesus appeared weak—letting himself be arrested, beaten, and killed—but his surrender wasn't weakness; it was strength channeled into love. His power wasn't about controlling others but about remaining true to his purpose even when it cost him everything.

You know, church, the contrast between Jesus and Pilate isn't just a story from 2,000 years ago. It's a mirror that shows us the choices we face in our own lives every single day. I believe there are three fundamental choices that defined the difference between these two men - and they're the same three choices that shape who we become. The first choice we face daily is what I'll call the Heart Choice. Do we harden our hearts to protect ourselves like Pilate, or do we remain tender and vulnerable like Jesus? Proverbs 4:23 warns us, "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." But this isn't about building walls! It's about protecting your heart from hardening. Look at Pilate washing his hands in Matthew 27:24. That gesture revealed YEARS of a heart growing harder and harder. Each compromise, each political calculation, each time he chose advancement over integrity - his heart became a little more calloused. Now look at Jesus in Gethsemane. His sweat like drops of blood. Showing real anguish. Real fear. Total vulnerability. And you know what? That vulnerability didn't make Him weak! It connected Him more deeply to His Father's purpose. We think hardening our hearts protects us. But what if the walls we build become our prison? C.S. Lewis said it perfectly: "To love at all is to be vulnerable... If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give it to no one... Lock it up safe in the casket of your selfishness. But in that casket... it will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.” That's exactly what happened to Pilate! His protected heart became impenetrable - to truth, to courage, to God himself. Listen, A protected heart can never be a surrendered heart. And only a surrendered heart can truly follow Jesus.

The second choice we face is what I'll call the Truth Choice. Turn with me to John 8:32 (NIV), where Jesus says, "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” This verse isn't just about intellectual knowledge. It's about alignment with reality as God sees it. And nowhere do we see the contrast between Jesus and Pilate more clearly than in their relationship with truth. Let's look at John 18:37-38 (NIV) again: "'You are a king, then!' said Pilate. Jesus answered, 'You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.' 'What is truth?' retorted Pilate.” When Pilate asked this, he wasn't searching for answers. He was DODGING RESPONSIBILITY. And we do the same thing all the time! There are countless times when speaking with people about the gospel, that I hear them say, "Well, that might be your truth, but it's not mine." That's basically them saying like pilate "What is truth?" in today's language. We've become masters at bending truth: We call gossip "prayer requests” We call greed "good stewardship” We call lust "appreciating beauty” We call compromise "being balanced”

And we wonder why our faith feels POWERLESS! Do you know gossip is probably one of the biggest killers in a church? It's true. What does gossip do to a church? It pokes holes in the fabric of grace. When we spread rumors under the guise of 'prayer requests,' we're not just hurting individuals—we're tearing apart Christ's body. Every piece of gossip is like saying, 'What is truth?' just like Pilate did. Meanwhile, Jesus doesn't just SPEAK truth—He IS truth! He tells us in John 14:6, "I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life." Every single thing He did aligned perfectly with who He claimed to be. Even when truth led to a CROSS! The Garden of Gethsemane means "the garden of pressing." It's where they would press olives until oil squeezed out. When Jesus was pressed in that garden, what came out of Him? Only a desire to do His Father's will. What comes out of you when you're pressed? When life squeezes you hard? Truth isn't just about being factually correct—it's about living a life of INTEGRITY where what you say, what you believe, and what you DO all line up! Where are you bending truth to make your life more comfortable RIGHT NOW? Listne, A lie may protect you temporarily, but only truth can transform you permanently.

The third critical choice we face is what I'll call the Trust Choice. Look with me at Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV), which says, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” You know, I struggle with this one so much. I say I trust God, I sing about trusting God, but when things get hard or scary in my life - sometimes… I panic. I start making backup plans. I grab for control. I'm guessing some of you might relate to this too. And I see this same struggle in Pilate. Matthew 27:19 tells us, "While Pilate was sitting on the judge's seat, his wife sent him this message: 'Don't have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.’" Can you imagine? God reaches out through a dream to warn Pilate! But instead of trusting that warning, Pilate trusted what felt safe - his political instincts, the crowd's opinion, what he could see and control. And that misplaced trust led to the worst decision in human history. Now look at Jesus in Mark 14:36: "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Jesus trusted His Father completely, even when the path made NO SENSE! Even when it led through suffering! Even when it led to a CROSS! This just blows my mind: Pilate had armies, authority, political power - but under pressure, he crumbled. Jesus had NOTHING by the world's standards - but His trust produced a strength that changed eternity. I look at my own life and see how I stress about money... as if God hasn't promised to provide. How I try to control outcomes... as if I know better than God what should happen. How I panic when my plans fall apart... as if God doesn't have something better. Misplaced trust ALWAYS disappoints us eventually. Always. Just like it did for Pilate. In his moment of testing, everything he trusted in failed him. But Jesus shows us another way. What would happen in our lives if we actually trusted God like that? Not just saying it, but living it? What if we actually believed Romans 8:28 that "in ALL things God works for the good of those who love him”? The things we trust instead of God will always fail us when we need them most. Sand listne, churhc… The Champion we choose to follow, always determines the path we walk and the person that we become...

You know, in our world today, just like in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, we're constantly looking for the wrong kind of champion. We want someone who will wield power and overthrow our enemies. We're drawn to strength, to force, to might. But Jesus shows us He is a different kind of champion. Not the champion we want, but the champion we desperately need. So this morning, We’ve seen two champions enter Jerusalem. Pilate, who looked powerful but failed when tested. And Jesus, who looked weak but changed eternity. And as we head toward Easter this week, we're faced with our own choices. The same three choices that defined these men will define us: Will we surrender our hearts, or protect them? Will we align with truth, or bend it? Will we trust God completely, or grip tightly to control? So, as I close, let me challenge us with three specific ways to follow the true Champion this Holy Week: First, surrender your heart. This week, identify ONE relationship where you've built walls. Maybe it's with a family member you've been avoiding. Maybe it's with a friend who hurt you. Maybe it's with God himself. Take ONE step of vulnerability in that relationship - a phone call, an apology, an honest conversation. Write that name down right now. Commit to that step before Easter Sunday. Bury everything that is not of Christ our champion - the pride, the fear, the resentment - and let the Spirit of God resurrect what your relationship truly needs. Just as Jesus surrendered His heart completely to the Father's will, surrender yours - and watch what God can do with a heart that's no longer protected, but given.

Second, commit to truth. Identify ONE area where you've been bending the truth. Choose to speak and live truthfully in that area this week, even if it costs you something.

Third, redirect your trust. Identify ONE thing you're trying to control instead of trusting God with. Each morning of this Holy Week, physically open your hands and pray: "God, I surrender this to you today. Not my will, but yours be done.” Hav you ever hear dot he the power of the word yet? When Jesus was in the garden facing the cross, listen to what He prayed in Mark 14:36: "Take this cup from me. YET not my will, but yours be done.” That little word "yet" is where transformation happens. Jesus didn't pretend He wanted to suffer. He was honest about His desire - "Take this cup from me." But then came that powerful word: “YET. YET not my will, but yours be done.” That single word bridges the gap between our human fear and surrender. It acknowledges our weakness while embracing God's strength. It's not denying reality - it's transforming it through trust. This Holy Week, when you open your hands each morning, try praying like Jesus: "God, I want to control this situation... YET not my will, but yours be done.” The things we trust instead of God will always fail us when we need them most. But Jesus shows us another way - a path of surrender that leads through death to the Father's presence.

And that's the path He invites us to walk today. Not an easy path. Not a comfortable path. But the ONLY path that leads to life. As we enter this Holy Week, remember this truth: The champion we follow determines the path we walk and the person we become. Let's pray.Heavenly Father,

We come before You today having seen two champions: Pilate, who washed his hands of responsibility, and Jesus, who opened His hands in surrender. Give us the courage to choose the right Champion. Help us surrender our hearts, commit to truth, and redirect our trust to You. This Holy Week, as we remember Jesus's journey to the cross, transform our choices. Teach us to say, like Your Son, "Yet not my will, but Yours be done." May the Champion we follow determine the path we walk and the person we become. In Jesus's name, Amen.

May the God who entered Jerusalem on a donkey rather than a war horse give you the courage to choose surrender over control. May the Spirit who strengthened Jesus in Gethsemane strengthen you to say "Yet not my will, but Yours be done." May the Father who raised Jesus from the dead transform your heart choices, truth choices, and trust choices. And may the champion you follow determine the path you walk and the person you become, until we see Him face to face. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. *

Symptoms

Let's turn our bibles to 1 Corinthians and find with me chapter 12. Chapter 12 is the chapter right before the love chapters. And I think it’s interesting, because we’re gonna see how Paul remains us that we are together, the body of Christ. And now, as we gather as the body, Paul would go on in chapter 13 to reminds the body, that our atmosphere, our internal organs, our breathe and soul of this body, that we call the church is love.

Christ who is the head, the center of the church calls us to love God and love one another. And so in chapter 12, we find the scriptures on being together, as the body. Let’s read. Chapter 12, and find with me verses 27-28. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.

Today marks the conclusion of our series called, I, Will. We learned how our attitude determines our direction. We also learned, “That we were not just created to worship, but we were also created for community.” Our final topic of our series is this… Churchanity…“I will, avoid Churchanity” What is churchanity? Churchanity can be defined like this. (Any practices of Christianity that place a larger emphasis on the habits of church life or the institutional traditions of the church than on theological and spiritual teachings of Jesus; it’s the quality of being too church-focused and not really Jesus focused) So, you’re probably wondering what does that mean?

I’ve heard of christianity, but never this word churchanity. It can have multiple meanings, but the overall principle of churchanity is this… People become consumed with how they do church rather than being Christ as the church together. So very reality we can say, they focus more on what they do rather than being Christ. Thom Rainer defines Churchianity like this, he says, “Churchianity is practicing our church and religious beliefs according to human standards rather than biblical guidelines.” And what he talks about in his book, is that membership within the church has moved from meaningful discipleship and being sacrificial and functional Christians, seeking Jesus Christ and serving others, to becoming more where church members are comfortable with the traditions, while discipleship has moved from practical moments, to just learning without putting what you’ve learned into practice.

And so IN essence, churchanity is where the church has become consumers of the product of Christianity without producing a life of holiness. Which simply means to be conformed into the likeness of Jesus. And our goal as Christians should be, every day to not only pursue Christ, but to be conformed into his likeness in every aspect of our lives. And I truly believe this… we do this together. I need you just as much as you need me, so that, we can be the body together, who pursues Christ together and in turn become more christlike together.

So Churchanity… There are five major symptoms of churchanity but for today, I want to focus on two of them… Number 1, the first symptom is this: “Church is a spectator sport.” When Alicia and I moved here we went to our first season of Montousvulle football and we sat in one of the worst places to sit… 50 yard line, looking at the press box, the very top row on the right.

It was the worst place because there was a group of men that every home game would gather in that spot not to sit and enjoy the game, but to stand against the top rail, and spectate and complain about the football game. And I mean they were brutal. They would scream out what the team should or shouldn’t do, or what the coach should or shouldn’t do. On top of that, they would talk about how they would have done it this or that way.

Or, If that was me out there, I would have ran that ball for a touch down. Hey so and so.. remember back in 1978 when that person threw me the ball and I ran for a 95 yard touchdown to win the game? And I got to admit, I can get that way too. I sit at Chloes games sometimes and I get a little competitive and loud. But many times we don’t remember that we’re watching as a spectator.

Our imaginations takes over and we put ourselves in that moment… and we forget that we haven’t done anything to be a a part of the work of what the team does to prepare for the game… think about it. We don’t participate in the grueling practices. We don’t have the knowledge and experience of the coaches. We don’t experience the pressure of the fans pouring their own hard earned money into the seat they paid for and demanding a win.

Or caring for the administration, and recruiting and having a winning season? Many times we don’t have any of those things but yet, we still give our two cents while watching others. And so what we see is that Churchanity becomes a spectator sport. Where Members attend, but they don’t actively participate in the ministry of the church. They expect others to do the ministry for them. And in Thom Rainers book, he said, the only time those who practice churchanity get excited within the church is when they can express their anger or displeasure about something or what someone else is doing.

Paul tells us. “When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation,” (1 Corinthians 14:26, NIV). What we learn is this.. speculations leads our faith into being a presentation, but participation leads us into meaningful transformation. No one in the stands is transformed when they spectate. So, the act of participation goes beyond mere attendance; it involves genuine involvement and investment in the spiritual growth of both oneself and the community.

Which leads us into the second symptom… The second symptom is this: Church is about me. Biblical church life is about serving, about sacrificing, about giving, and about putting others before our own desires and needs. Churchianity is about being served, receiving, getting your way, and insisting on your needs and wants before others. Can I ask.. How self centered are you? And let me add something to that… How would you know if your self centered?

I’m not sure we ourselves really realize how self centered we are. Just like sin, we never knew how sinful we was and how lost we were till we were face to face with the living gospel. The gospel was preached and we realized we have sinned against God. I’m not sure if we truly ever realize in its fullness how selfish we are…I believe that’s why God makes such an emphasis on being a loving, and grace giving, body of believers.

Because I need grace. I hope im not the only one here this morning that needs grace. I’m not convinced that we notice our self centerness at all times, but I do believe this… I believe God gives us three experiences that can pull us out of being self centered in our life. The first one is this… it’s love. When we begin to love someone, the act of love pulls us out of yourself and you start to care for another in way beyond our imagination.

I like to imagine my wife. I love Alicia. But I’m selfish at times, and my wife is most times less selfish than I am. And I said this before, I never knew how selfish I was, till I was married. Because when I began to truly love my wife outside of just mere dating stuff… I looked for ways to put her first. And its the same with our kids…

I’ve sacrificed my time, and my body, for them. They don’t know what it was like to swing 12 pound hammers in the brutal sun, with only 2 hours of sleep on a 20 hour work day. My kids don’t know what it’s like to blow out your knee leaving you 25% disabled for the rest of your life, or to gouge your hand and the pain of cuts and scrapes and injuries, just to make sure they had food and shelter.

My family doesn’t know what its like to spend a full day with them, just to sleep for three hours and then head to work without eating for 15 hours rigging down a frac site in the rain. Just to come home to no dinner, and go to bed hungry because you only have three hours to sleep before you go at it again. And to do all of this without someone saying to you…

I’m thankful for what you do and sacrifice for our family. Loving my family above most daily comforts got me through all those things, but that doesn’t means I’m still not self centered. Jeuss said, Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. And then he goes and lays down himself on the cross as a sacrifice so that we can be loved.

And I think about that sometimes and I wonder. When has been moments that I haven’t been thankful for the love of God given to me in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross? How many times have I been selfish? When we intentionally and actively love others, we are pulling ourselves away from our centerness and focusing more on Chrsit’s love. And when we love like Christ, we naturally will love others.

The second experience that pulls us away from ourselves is faith. Faith alone means we believe in a higher power. If you believe in God, that by definition means you believe that there is a higher power than you. A creator of all. God the Father, the son and the Holy Spirit. When we focus on faith, we focus on God’s plan and His will. Jesus said, For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

In the garden, he goes, Not my will but yours be done. Faith is more than just believing… Faith calls for trust and a belief that His will is greater than our own. I watched a video the other day that talked about Pauls thorn in his side… and he said this… he goes… Paul at some point realizes that the thorn wasn’t there deter him, but Paul realized that no matter what happened to him in the flesh, in some way God would allow that to happen because he could get the most glory from Pauls thorn than Paul not having a thorn.

What if what we go through, which strengthens our faith and character and endurance was in our life to bring more glory to God? I can’t remember if shared this or not.. but last week as I finished writing the sermon, I walked across the parking lot and just stopped dead in my tracks… I was praying as I was walking across the parking lot and chewing on some specific prayers asking, Lord, when are you going to grow the church?

Not my will but yours, but I’ve suffered for three years. When will the dawn come? And as I walked across the lot these words came to my heart… I (Jesus) will get more glory out of the brokenness of where you are than of the stubbornness of where you were. So, my response was to stop in the driveway, write down what he had laid on my heart… and respons, Lord, whatever thorn you put into my side, may it bring you more glory than if it wasn’t there.

And May you remove it if it’s your will. Which takes me to the third experience that pulls us away from ourselves: which is suffering. Love, with and Suffering pulls us away from our self centers because, In our suffering we can finally develop an empathy for others. Suffering helps us experience hardships with others. Think about this. Jesus constantly put his disciples where they had to be in ground zero of what he was doing when he was healing others in their suffering.

He would send them out, and when they returned they would give a report. Jesus was teaching the 12, you can’t heal the sick and bring the gospel to people by not being with them, and understanding their needs. This past Friday, Alicia and I took 400 popsicles to the school. And my heart was broken for those kids. We went room by room, and those kids had no AC. We walked into rooms with kids having their hair drenched in sweat.

And my heart broke, but guess what. Because of your generosity, and others, we were able to go to where those little ones were suffering, and bring them a sweet and frozen treat. We would not of known of their need for a cool treat if it wasn’t for us seeing thier suffering first hand. And we got to be Christ to them because we met their needs. Remember when Jesus did that?

He got out of the boat in Mark chapter 6 and was surrounded by all the people needing healing. Jesus sees them as sheep without a shepherds and he loves on them… Then what happens, the disciples was like, Jesus send them away so they can go get food for themselves.. and then Jesus goes… you feed them. And they go… with what!!!!! And Jesus tells them to go and see how much they have.

And all they had was enough for a Hebrew lunchable. And Jesus prays, and multiply the loaves and fishes. In our suffering, Jesus puts us in moments where our self centeredness would say, tell them to go and find food, but the Christ centered life would be, lets share the food we have, and feed them together. That’s the three experience that pull us out of self centeredness. I’m going to stop there because I believe this is a great moment for us to think on these things in our life that we might be prone to be self centered.

We’re talking about churchanity and although if you want to know the other three symptoms, I’ll just say this.. they all come down to one thing… self centerness. And that wasn’t Jesus. Pastor David Platt once said, “We are molding Jesus into our image. He's beginning to look a lot like us because, after all, that is who we are most comfortable with. The danger now is when we gather in our church buildings to sing, and lift up our hands in worship, we may not actually be worshiping the Jesus of the Bible.

Instead, we may be worshiping ourselves.” And so, in this moment of intimacy, and communion. I want us to pause… I want us to pause for a moment to surrender and let me read some Scripture to you… Now, as they were eating, Jesus took bread and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat. This is my body.’ And he took a cup.

And when he’d given thanks, he gave it to them saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many, for the forgiveness of sins.” – Matthew 26:26–28 I always get overwhelmed when I think of Jesus sitting around a table with his disciples, jsut like we are right now. It’s one of the most sacred and intimate things we can do, and share with one another.

And in this intimate moment, Jesus reminds us to do and remember. To Reflect on our need for his grace, his provision of grace, in his body and his blood, his body given for us. His blood shed for us, the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. For the forgiveness of sins to every week, remind ourselves that his blood covers over our sins. And I dont know what’s in your life that you need forgives from.

For me, Its probably all the times I’ve been self centered in my life. And So, I want to pray, Jesus. I remember the body broken for me, and the blood poured out for me… to be less self centered. I want more of you and less of me. I want my life to be marked by you in me, and not by the standards we place on what a church should do and look like.

And so, I will pray the prayer you’ve taught us… Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

Amen. The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, broken for you, preserve you blameless, unto everlasting life. Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful. The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, shed for you, preserve you blameless unto everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.*

I AM the Resurrection and the Life

This past week, I found myself staring at my reflection in a hospital window. It was mid-afternoon in the ER waiting area, and all around me, monitors beeped steadily – that rhythmic sound we've all heard. Beep... Beep... Each one marking a heartbeat, each one a reminder that life is precious. While waiting outside one of the rooms, I overheard nurses talking about a gentleman who had passed away in the ambulance on his way in. That conversation hit me hard. The simple fact that we're all here this morning, breathing, living – it's a gift we often take for granted. Have you ever noticed how hospitals make us face things we spend most of our lives trying to avoid thinking about? The older I get, the more I find myself thinking about life and death. That rhythmic beeping of the monitors – it's a lot like our breathing, isn't it? Always there, keeping time, marking life. Speaking of breathing – would you do something with me right now? Just one simple thing. Take one deep breath. Go ahead – just one. Hold it for a moment... and slowly let it out. Twenty thousand times a day. That's how often we do that without thinking. Twenty thousand gifts we rarely stop to thank God for. You know what's funny? Every Thanksgiving, we go around the table listing what we're grateful for. But how many of us ever say, "I'm thankful for air"? Sometimes it takes almost losing something to realize its value. When I was a kid, probably around 7 or 8, I learned this lesson in a terrifying way. We were playing hide and seek with my cousins when I spotted an old 1950s refrigerator with one of those big silver handles. Thinking I was clever and small enough to fit, I squeezed inside and pulled it shut. That's when I learned two terrifying truths. First, these old fridges latched from the outside - I was locked in that dark, scary space. But second, and far more important, I learned just how precious each breath really is. Within seconds, I was gasping, desperately trying to find air where there wasn't any. I didn't know at that young age that these old fridges were airtight when unplugged. If it wasn't for my cousin finding me quickly, I wouldn't be standing here today. You see, both that childhood memory and my recent hospital visit taught me something profound about gratitude. What if real thanksgiving isn't just about counting blessings, but about recognizing life itself as the gift? What if gratitude is less about what we have and more about Who gives us each breath?

I want to invite you to open your Bibles with me to John chapter 11. We're going to meet a family who had to face these questions in the rawest way possible. They're about to learn, as I did in that hospital room, that sometimes our deepest encounters with Jesus happen in the places we least want to be… Let’s read together from John chapter 11, starting with verse 17. Take a moment to find this passage in your Bibles... Let’s read together, John chapter 11, and find with me verse 17. 17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles[a] from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. 21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” Now, find with me verse 32… A little context.. Jesus has just met Martha, and now Mary, with the crowd following Mary is going to go where Jesus is. Here is the conversation that Mary has with Jesus. 32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. 35 Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

I want to ask a question.. Are you trusting Jesus Christ as your life? The story of Martha, Mary and Lazarus is a fascinating one. I want skip Martha’s interaction with Jesus for just right now… and lets take a moment to look at Mary and Jesus. Mary comes running up to Jesus and she’s weeping. Listen to Mary’s words, in John 11:32: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” do you notice how Jesus dealt with her in her grief? Like we know what happens.. and if you dot know the story, spoiler alert, Jesus in a few verses ahead will eventually go to the tomb of Lazarus and he would call out his name, and Lazarus would com alive again and walk out of the tomb. Jeuss literally brings him back to life. But here in this moment, we find something fascinating in Jesus’s interaction with Mary… although Jesus knows what he’s about to do… it never gets in the way of being present with people. If we look in Verse 33 says, “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.” Then, our Bible tells us… Jesus wept. And Im fascinated by it because here’s the question I’m wanting to ask.. Why does Jesus weep when He knows He’s about to remove the whole reason for weeping? He knows. The most real truth about Jesus Reminds Us that Jesus has the Power to Take Our Tears Away, but he also has the love to weep with us in our grief. If you ever wanted to see what perfected love looks like…. This is it. If you ever wanted to know what kind of love is real perfect love, you’ll never find it anywhere else but in and through Jesus. Grief is a really interesting emotion. I’ve learned as a pastor that each persons grief is as unique as their fingerprint. And I’ve witnessed as a pastor, that people grieve differently. Some weep loudly, and some grieve silently. And when you experience grief, there’s two things you’ll learn that are common in anyone that grieves. The first truth lies in our deep human need to have our grief witnessed. God created us for community, and this rings especially true in our seasons of mourning. Just as the body of Christ functions as many parts working together, our grief needs to be witnessed by our brothers and sisters in faith. Scripture reminds us to "mourn with those who mourn" (Romans 12:15), showing us that even in our deepest sorrow, we were never meant to walk alone. When fellow believers witness our grief, they become the hands and feet of Christ, offering the same compassion Jesus showed to Mary and Martha in their time of loss. And second, we all grieve because love was evident and love was real in their life. Our capacity to grieve flows directly from our capacity to love – a gift given to us by our Creator who is love itself (1 John 4:8). When we grieve deeply, we reflect the very heart of God, who loves His children with an everlasting love. Our tears mirror the sorrow God feels when His children suffer, and our aching hearts echo Jesus's compassion for a broken world. You can not have grief without love. They are intertwined together. And if your plan is to go through life avoiding grief and pain, you can most certainly do so, but the cost to a Grief-less life is to always run from love. I don’t know about you, but a life without love is like a river without water. There is not one person, that I know of in this world, that doesn’t want to love and also feel loved by others. I hope that is what you and anyone who visits this church finds here in this church. The issue is… for most of us when we have experience rejection in our life, we become afraid to love and to let others love us in return. But look to where Mary and Martha runs… they run to Jesus and Jesus does what… he weeps with them. Think of how amazing it is, that in this verse we find Jesus, who is God in the flesh, Who knows everything is about to change for them, but still he takes the time to weep with them. Did you notice what Mary and Martha did? They shared their need to grieve and for it to be witnessed, and if their grief is but an echo of a love now gone, its so beautiful.., they go to the source of love. Jesus has the Power to Take Our Tears Away. We know this.. we have hope of this from the resurrection to come. John would write that in the book of revelation.. think about what he writes, He (Speaking of the Lamb, Speaking of Jeuss) will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” What we see in this moment is that God makes it crystal clear to us, when we weep, he undeniably weeps with us. When we hurt, he hurts with is. He witnesses our pain, and he comes. And so, this morning, I don’t know the depth of your grief, or the hurt you’ve expieirnced. Whether it be the loss of a loved one, or maybe you felt alone and abandoned, betrayed and discouraged. With whatever it is you’re dealing with, Jesus is witnessing your pain, and he loves you perfectly where you are, and he weeps with you.

Jesus weeps, but then he brings truth. You see, it’s not just being there witnessing our pain, but it’s also bringing truth about our pain. It’s Inviting God Into Our Pain and hearing what he says about our pain.. That’s always the first step to healing. And when I say heal, I am not saying we forget our grief, or we forget those we have once loved, what I am saying is this… Healing can never begin unless were real and honest about why we grieve. One of the resources and books I’ve been looking into has been David Kessler’s book called, “Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief.” And in this book, Kessler writes, “Healing doesn’t mean the loss didn’t happen. It means that it no longer controls us.” When we grieve, we need truth. Martha comes up to Jesus and says “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” If Jesus would have been there… this story would have been different, but not, Lazarus has died. But yet, in this moment, hear the truth that Jesus says to her… “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” Do you realize what Jesus just said? Jesus just said He has the power to make it all untrue. He has the power to turn all of it around. Now, I thought about this truth this week and the only way I can explain it is like this.. You know that feeling when you’re asleep and you have a nightmare? You have a whole bunch of feelings and emotions. I remember one as a kid where wolves were chasing me. I can to this day recall how scared I was. I remember the sounds, and my fears, and I vividly remember how I felt. But then, I also know how I felt when I woke up. How safe I felt once my mind realized that it was a dream. I remember feeling different once truth was realized. Now, what about those moments where you weren’t asleep. Those moments where something really bad did happen to you. It’s not a dream and you just sit there in your grief, and you pinch yourself to make sure you’re not sleeping. How many times in our grief and we just say things like, I wish this was a dream. This, can’t be true, and you just wish what had happened would be undone. This is the truth of what Jesus is saying to Martha. He goes, I have the power to undo what grieves you. I have the power to undo it all… where it would be just like waking from a dream. And listen Church, if that is true…. If Jesus has the power to undo what has been broken. then that means death is not the end of our story—and that changes everything for us. Jesus was sharing truth into their conversation… and then… listen to that Jesus says next… Do you believe this? Martha responds, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God.” Her word for Christ here is actually her saying, I believe you are the Messiah. You are the promised one. The one we’ve been waiting for… You’re our long awaited Hope! Why? Why do we need hope? Why is Jesus our hope? DO you understand the implications of what it means that the long awaited Messiah has come? Man and woman were made by God, but they sinned against Him. They did what all of us have done—they turned from God and His ways to ourselves and our own ways. As a result of sin, they were separated from God—and all of us are as a result. The penalty for sin is death, both physical death in this world and everlasting judgment in eternity beyond this world. But we call the Bible and the gospel good news because here it with an open heart this morning… The gospel is that God loves us and has not left us alone in a world of sin, separation, suffering and death. God promised to send His Son, Jesus, to do what none of us could ever do. He lived the life we have not and could not live, a life of no sin. Then He died the death we deserved to die. We deserve our death. Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for the sins of anyone who puts their trust in Him. Then, three days later Jesus did what no one else has ever done or could ever do. He conquered death itself, the enemy we cannot conquer. Jesus rose from the grave. He is the resurrection and the life. And he looks to Martha and says to her…I am the resurrection and the life… Do you believe it? The greatest invitation we could eve receive is the invitation to enteral life in Jesus and he simply hands it to you in words of love and says, do you believe it? Martha, says yes, but she doesn’t understand. Just like so many people who hear this gospel today and refuse it because they don’t understand. So many times our truth prevents us from hearing His truth. Our minds are limited.. they are.. the smartest person int his world can’t run form death, but they can run into death and find life. They can.. and you can too… but you’ve got to hear the invitation this morning.. do you believe this. Are you trusting Jesus with your life?

I thought long and hard on how I would end our service today, because I know it hits home for all of us. But, for those of you who are in Christ… Can I give you some encouragement for our ending? I feel like I should encourage you before we end. Can I do that? First, Grief Isn't a Detour from Faith – It's Part of the Journey The first thing we need to understand is this: grief isn't foreign to God's children. In fact, our capacity to grieve deeply proves something beautiful – it proves we're alive, we're human, and we're loved by God. Think about it – Jesus himself, standing at Lazarus's tomb, didn't rush to resurrection. He wept. The Bible doesn't teach us we'll never taste grief. Instead, Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians that we "do not grieve as others do who have no hope." We still grieve – we just grieve differently. Our tears fall on the soil of hope.

Secondly, Suffering Can Be Sacred Ground This second truth might sound strange at first. It's like watching a child take medicine – they hate the taste, but we know it's working healing in them. David understood this when he wrote, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.” When I look back at the hardest seasons of my life – nights spent crying out to God, moments when loss felt overwhelming – I realize something: those weren't just seasons of pain. They were seasons of growth. The moments that threatened to break me became the moments that built my faith. Here's what I've learned: Don't just endure your suffering – let it teach you. Let it shape you. Let it drive you deeper into God's heart. Sometimes the bitter cup holds the sweetest grace.

Thirdly, Our Pain Draws His Presence There's a promise in Scripture that has become increasingly precious to me. David writes, "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit." Notice he doesn't say the Lord fixes everything immediately. He says the Lord comes near. What if your darkest valleys aren't pushing you away from God, but actually drawing you closer to His heart? What if there's a special kind of nearness we experience only in our pain? I've found that often, most of my deeper encounters with God's presence haven't been on the mountaintops, but in the valleys.

fourthly, Healing Has God's Timing Yes, by His stripes we are healed. But notice something: when Jesus healed people in the Gospels, He rarely did it the same way twice. The blind man had to wash in the pool. The leper had to show himself to the priest. Some were healed instantly; others gradually. Here's the truth: God always heals, but He doesn't always heal according to our timeline. Some wounds He heals instantly, some gradually, and some He won't fully heal until we see Him face to face. But not a single tear falls outside His notice or His care.

And speaking of God’s timing… this is the fifth and final truth. Wait………. Wait in Hope. David writes, "Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning." But let's be honest – how many of us have gone to bed in grief, woken up, and the pain was still there? Where's the joy that was promised with the morning. Here’s what I've come to understand: God's "morning" isn't measured by our 24-hour clock. Remember Psalm 40? David writes, "I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock.” How long was David in that pit? The Bible doesn't tell us. But here's what we do know – he waited. And while he waited, God was working. The same God who raised Lazarus, the same God who left an empty tomb on Easter morning, is working in your waiting. Your grief has a purpose. Your tears have meaning. And your waiting isn't wasted – because the God who is the resurrection and the life is still in the business of bringing beauty from ashes and joy from mourning. Not just someday in heaven, but here, now, in the midst of our waiting.

This morning, we began by taking a breath together. By noticing what's always there but often forgotten. And as we close, I want us to notice something else that's always there – the presence of the One who calls Himself the resurrection and the life. Around our Thanksgiving tables in the coming weeks, some of us will feel the weight of empty chairs. Some of us will carry grief alongside our gratitude. And that's okay. Because we serve a Savior who sits with us in both. The same Jesus who asked Martha, "Do you believe this?" asks us the same question today. But notice – He doesn't just ask for intellectual agreement. He invites us into a relationship with the One who weeps with us before He works miracles, who enters our grief before He transforms it. So let me ask you one final question: How are you waiting? Are you waiting alone, or are you waiting with the One who is the resurrection and the life? Maybe you're here this morning and you've never truly answered Jesus's question, "Do you believe this?" Maybe it's time to stop running from death and run into life – the life that only Jesus can give. Or maybe you're a believer, but you're in that pit right now. You're in the waiting. Remember – David waited too. But he didn't just wait; he waited with the Lord. And that made all the difference. Let's pray. *Father, thank You that You are the God who doesn't just promise resurrection someday – You are the resurrection and the life today. For those wrestling with grief this holiday season, be especially near. Help us not just endure our waiting, but to find You in it. To trust that even now, You are working. Even now, You are faithful. Even now, You are good. Thank You that no tear falls without Your notice, no pain exists outside Your care, and no waiting extends beyond Your purpose. We trust You, not because we understand everything, but because we know You. In the name of Jesus, who is our resurrection and our life, amen.*

Here is your benediction. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Go in His peace.*

Generosity

If you have Bible—and I hope you or somebody around you does that you can look on with—let me invite you to open with me to Mark Chapter 12. It’s good to be together again around God’s Word. This is how I would like to begin. I want to begin with a challenge. I know that I’m competitive. So, challenges are things that help me take the next step many times, especially in my faith.

What I want to challenge us to do, and of course in the days ahead, is to give God a blank check with our church. To say to God, “God, if you want us to sell the building, although we do not want to do that, but if you ever call us to do it, we’ll do it. God, if you want us to eliminate every single program we have, we’ll do it.

God, if you want us to totally reorganize our community of faith, we’ll do it. Here’s a blank check; no strings attached.” Those are challenges where we take our lives and we say, I’m a blank check… Lord, cash me in anyway way you see fit. I want to be, absolutely surrendered to you and your will. And why not.. Last week we learned that Jesus has full authority over our lives, and over the world, even when we do not acknowledge it.

And even when we do acknowledge it, but yet still do not bend the knee to his will. It doesn’t matter hai you are, Jesus is King. He is king whether or not anyone bends the knee now or not, He is king. Whether anyone acknowledge it or not, he’s still king. And he calls us into being a part of the kingdom. Right? He is the the king. I am the dumb…

when you put us together we have the kingdom. Can I ask you, in thinking of competitions and challenges and and being a blank check. Did you know that Jesus cheers for you? I want to explore that today as we look at generosity. Let’s look into Marks gospel, chapter 12 and find with me verses 41-44.. let’s read the word of the Lord together. 41 Jesus sat down near the collection box in the Temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money.

Many rich people put in large amounts. 42 Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins. 43 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. 44 For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.” If you would just go back into the previous verses of this chapter, you would have seen some pretty tough moments for Jesus.

For instance, they asked Jesus should we pay taxes or shouldn’t we? Then the Sadducees came who didn’t believe in the resurrection and began asking him questions about marriage. If this guy dies, and leaves this wife, who does she remarry, because of this or that. Then, if that isn’t hard enough to deal with, scribes come along and hear all of Jesus’s wisdom and asks, well which is the greatest commandment?

The religious leaders were trying to trap Jesus with some trick questions. So you can imagine Jesus just constantly teaching and there has to be a significant amount of weariness and discouragement in his soul. He’s got to be tired. I know I would have been. So, what’s interesting is I believe after this whole ordeal with the trick questions and the constant teaching, Jesus needed to be encouraged. And so, he goes into the place where the offerings are being taken, and he sits down on the 50 yard line of the giving box.

And he waits, and watches. Mark tells us that Jesus watches many rich people come into the temple and put in large amounts of money Then, In verse 42 we see this transition word “Then.” Whenever we see this this word “then” what it denotes is that there is a transition and it clues in the reader that something important is about to happen. Look with me in verse 42… 42 Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins.

43 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. So Mark tells us that this widow came and and she dropped two small coins. It is interesting that Mark makes sure that we know that it is 2 small coins. How does he know? I dunno. I’ve read this account in commentaries and it usually says, that you could hear the rich peoples money clanging on the sides of the collection jar as they would dumped their massive mounts of money.

These collection jars were like metal, brass trumpet looking horns. So when you dropped the money in, it would ring. I guess this was like the early day Long Johns Silvers bell. Right? If you enjoyed your food, you would ring the bell as you would leave to let everyone know you had a jolly roger of a time. But we see in the NLT, Mark says two small coins, which are called mites.

But here is what really caught my attention. Regardless of of the difference between the rich and the poor… This unnamed widow chooses to show overwhelming generosity and as she gives…...Jesus is watching her. And Jesus is cheering her on. Jesus is making her an example something that needs to be celebrated. He’s cheering for her. She doesn’t even know it… but Jesus is watching and cheering her on. Now watch this..

why does Jesus cheer her on? As the widow woman approaches the offering box with all she has, she is embodying the very posture of Jesus himself. The Goodness of God is reflected in the life of this poor widow woman. How’s that? Well let’s see, look with me in verse 43.. 43 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions.

44 For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.” In this moment, Jesus takes the time to call the disciples over and to celebrate her act because it was an act that directly reflected the posture of Christ. Will the rich be blessed for giving… of course. Let me just say this… our western culture culture tells us that there is always this good and bad to everything.

This yin and yang to daily life and stories we live and tell. If the widow is the focal point of Jesus’s teaching, then our culture sometimes automatically makes us think that the rich people are the bad guys. I don’t believe this is the case. This isn’t Jesus saying, the rich are bad, and the poor are good. This is simply Jesus looking at everyday moments in life, and seeing the goodness of God shine through.

However, Jesus wanted the disciples to see her because her act was the preview of what He was about to do. And that was to go to the cross. I mean, think about this… just two chapters before this Jesus says, “Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10: 41-45 This moment with the widow was a teaching moment for his disciples as Jesus cheered her on.

And the tremendous truth to be gleaned from the text is this: Jesus wasn’t interested in what was in her hand but rather what was in her heart. You see, this tremendous sacrifice, of giving everting she had in the temple was a was a demonstration and byproduct of a heart of generosity and surrender. This heart of generosity and surrender was the very heart of Jesus. Think of this… before the Holy Spirit and pentecost Jesus is seeing himself in this woman.

He sees, sacrifice. Her heart was one of surrender and sacrifice. Think about it… The woman was a widow.. so that meant that to be a woman during these times, and a widow, You were always at the mercy of others to care for you. You’re not rich.. this isn’t some cougar out there in the temple looking for a rich man. This is a woman, giving, and sacrificing and surrendering everything she had.

And that meant that if she had to live at the mercy of others, she was also living at the mercy of God. When I think of widows and sacrificing and surrendering to the mercy of others, I think of my mom. My father passed when we moved here and my mother had nothing to pay for anything. The house had to be paid, the utilities, the car, and on top of that she had to come up with over 3,000 dollars to bury her husband.

And all I can say is this… she was at the mercy of others, and God has stepped in and made sure my mother was cared for. She owns the house and land now, she has a car, she’s daily cared for by God. What we can begin to take away from this is this truth: SACRIFICE TURNS OUR HEARTS TOWARDS GENEROSITY. When we’re willing to sacrifice things because of the goodness of God, We’re able to experience the provisions of God.

Think of David when he writes, “Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see - how good God is. Blessed are you who run to him. 8 Taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the man who takes refuge in Him!” Psalm 34:8 That’s not only an invitation for us to come and taste, but its also a promise that reminds us that we can trust in God.

And the provision…. Did you see what it was? It was joy. How happy is the man who takes refuge in Him… that’s joy. You’re provision is joy… Think about this… you’re leading someone to Christ and they go, what’s the perks of being a Christian? And you answer joy! When you are persecuted you will have abundant joy! When you are ridiculed for being a Christian, you will have joy!

Could you live your life knowing that you may not be rich, or famous, or well known… but in every circumstance you can have peace and joy that surpasses all knowledge? You see, when we have the provision of joy in our life, that’s from God… that means we have trust, and True trust in the Lord always brings transformation and a change in trajectory in our lives. What I mean by that is this…

transformation of our hearts, and trust in God will always change how generous I am. Let me explain that… The psalmists proclaims in Psalm 119:36 Incline my heart to Your testimonies, And not to covetousness. 37 Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way (NKJV). SO, the beginning of this joy we speak of comes when? When I turn my eyes from looking at worthless things in my life and I look to God's ways to be my ways.

And so David wanting GOd’s ways, begins like this… incline my heart. This is a heart that desires God more than anything else. David longs that his life be one of generosity not one of covetousness, or selfishness. And so when we see this word inclines, what we see is David is putting his heart in a posture. Think of it like this, When I think about incline, I also think of the word inclination.

Inclination is the persons natural tendency to feel a certain way. To be a certain way. I want my natural tendency and response to be that of Jesus Christ. I want my inclination to be the testimony of Jesus and His unbelievable generosity toward me. I realize that for the human heart many of our inclination isn’t to be inclined to God and to generosity. Let’s be honest, most times we see hearts willing to decline or recline.

But sacrifice and surrender is a heart condition. Think of David in Psalm 51:16-17, Where he write, “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. I’ve learned in my life and walk with Jesus, that if I offer God sacrifice without being totally surrendered to Him, I will always give him less than my all to him.

Every time….. No matter what I sacrifice… Time. Money. Comfort. Every time I sacrifice anything without being totally surrendered, I always find a way to give God less than my all. And most times its because there’s a war in my heart of all the things I find competing against God. Jesus isn’t king of my heart, he’s just a compartment. That should fight for the right to be upfront of all that I sacrifice and due.

How is that absolute surrender? How’s that a meaningful sacrifice? It’s like how the saying goes, “You can give without loving but you can’t love without giving.” I can give to someone homeless, but yet not love them. I can give my time to help someone, but be not really care or have compassion for them. Have you ever noticed in your life that you can be in the same room with someone in your family but have little to do with them because you’re engaged in other things?

I mean, think of this… now days we have cell phones and it’s nothing today to go to someones home, even our home, and even to the restaurant and see people total engaged in their phone more than the person. Try it sometime, because I’m guilty of this as well. Go somewhere and watch people. Here’s one… how many times have we watched a tv show and as soon as a commercial comes on, we find ourselves immediately looking at our phones.

And listen, don’t hear what I am not saying. It can be ok to be in the same room as someone and not engage them. It’s okay to be able to sit in silence with the people that we care about, but if you want to know that person and be known by them, there are just certain things that you’re going to need to do or want to do to engage with them, and that’s really what the invitation that we in Davids life when he reminds us to taste and see that the Lord is good.

But it is easy to give and to sacrifice and yet not love. And, Lord help us if we live our lives like that because we are no where near being Christ like if we do not love. I can come here every Sunday, and give, and sacrifice, and sacrifice and give, and be the greatest and most generous giver, while even sacrificing working overtime or doing something else with my life, and yet, still miss the point that I only give out of my surplus like the rich, but not out of my total and utter surrender to be like the widow.

It was her heart that Jesus saw… The woman's heart was inclined and focused on God. And because it was focused on God, her sacrifice was not a waste, but, get this… her sacrifice became a heart felt act of worship…. When our moment by moment sacrifices become acts worship, our everyday life begins to overflow with generosity. That’s true because we know our source. We no longer live out of our surplus, but by faith and trust in the Lords goodness.

I want to close us with 7 lifestyles of being generous… Practice generosity with your time. When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you’ll never get back. Your time is your life. That is why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time. Each day there are so.many moments we use our time for meaningless things. The older I get, the more I realize how much of my life I’ve wasted on stupid things.

Hours of playing video games, hours of living life for myself. Each day, God gives us a new day, with new mercies to use wisely. Maybe I can find ways to use it to bless others? Be Generous with your words. Proverbs 16:24 says, Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body. Words are powerful, not because we can speak things into existence (which we can’t), but because of how much they can affect others.

Just the other day, I was getting short with Abby because she didn’t know how to put a tent up, and I was tired, and aggravated. We need to be reminded about how our words can lift or tear down. And remember this.. Kind words cost you nothing but may mean everything to someone. Share your gifts, talents and skills Our sign is being built by someone who has gifts, talents and skills in woodworking.

I Peter 4:10, says, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace. You can also be generous with your talents and skills by using them outside of your job, and for free. Someone once asked me how much do I charge for wedding and funerals. I said nothing. They gasped. Well, how else you supposed to make a living? I believe God blesses those who are generous, and Im called into ministry not for money, but to serve.

Be generous with your possessions. Im working on it, and it’s hard… but I’m working on being a minimalist. And I’ve many times given away many of my things, like electronics and such. Be generous with your things and lay up treasures in heaven. You know it was coming.. Practice generosity with your money. Give as you can afford to give, and as much as you want. Don’t give out of obligation or necessity.

God cares more about what’s in your heart than what’s in your hand. Here is one we forget often.. be generous in extending mercy and forgiveness. Jesus teaches us in Luke 6: 36,37 that we can be more merciful to others and more forgiving. Wherever you are in forgiving someone else, just know this.. you can always forgive them more. I believe that. Not holding on to grudges, giving the benefit of the doubt, not jumping to conclusions, not being quick to judge others.

And lastly, Practice generosity with intentional acts of kindness. No one knows who said it, but there is a saying that goes, “Always give without remembering, and always receive without forgetting” I think what it means is this… give with humility, receive with gratefulness. I hope these help you become generous.. lets; pray. *

I Will, Multiply

I want to open our bibles up to Luke chapter 4 to begin with, we will be skipping around the Bible to a couple different verses. This is the fifth message in a series where we’ve been looking at what an outward christian looks like. And we began looking at having the right attitudes, and how the wrong attitude is detrimental to our faith walk. We looked at worship and how worship is vertical that spills out into the horizontal.

Then we looked at being together. How the early church was devoted to one another, and then last week we saw how service isn’t to be self centered but Jesus centered while we serve others. Today, I want to explore another outward Christian attitude and it’s this, I will go and make disciples. I believe this is the one thing in the life of the local church as a whole, so what I am saying, is all churches, I believe many church in our culture and our generation has lost this truth that we are called to go and make disciples.

Being a disciple means a person is driven to see the gospel go to all people, and as a result, they are themselves committed to making disciples. In todays church, I just believe that we’ve lost that desire. Every follower of Christ should be (zealous!) to see the gospel taken to the ends of the earth. And it begins right here. In our own town. Every day, in the US alone.

10,000 babies are born. SO that puts us roughly around 4 million babies are born per year. Can I ask you something… If I were to ask you to write down the answer to the question “How do you make disciples?” what would you write? What does that look like in your own life? Or maybe you would say, “I don’t know if I’ve ever really made a disciple.” Let me encourage you to remember that Jesus has commanded this for all of us as His followers.

We are to go and make disciples. We don’t want to get to the end of our lives and, looking back, and realize we haven’t done this one thing He left for us to do. Can you imagine… standing before the awesome, powerful, but loving God and replaying and looking back at all of your christian life was, and all you see is just you showing up and coming to church on Sundays mornings, grumbling about services being too long or too short and the music wasn’t to your liking, and maybe, just maybe you served here or there as you lived your life outside of the church to the fullest it can be lived.

But yet, before the throne of Jesus Christ you learn that your faith only stopped at coming to know Christ. Because If the point of our lives was simply to know Him, He could have taken us home in the moment of our conversion. And I know I said the same thing, I’m not sure if I am called to do that. Perhaps you’ve said, I’m not called to be a teacher, or pastor, or an evangelist.

But the truth is, He has left us here in a world of sin and evil and injustice for a reason. He’s given us a mission which is to make disciples. So the question is: how do we do that? I want truly consider that question this morning, and my goal, my heart is for each of us to grasp this idea that Jesus calls us to be disicpleed and to disciples others.

So, let’s begin with Luke 4… I want to start where we all start. Even though we’re not fishermen… well at lease some of us aren’t, and there are some who think they are… but let’s start here in Luke with some fisherman that Jesus begins interacting with. Read Luke 4-11 The first time we see in Luke that Jesus interacts with Simon in his gospel is when Simon Peter just got back from a horrible fishing excursion and he caught nothing.

But Jesus tests his faith and calls him to go out a little further. For me, this is equivalent to moments in our life where we try new things. Right. How many times you’ve told yourself you couldn’t do something, but then when you stretched your faith, or you stretched your perspective on how you think something should be. And then, you were able to accomplish something you thought was impossible, or even wrong?

I’ve been married for 18 years, I’ve had plenty of times my perspective was changed because Alicia told me I was wrong, and she was right. Like whoa, write that down that I said that. But here’s what Jesus said to Peter and his bother Andrew, follow me. Drop your nets and follow me, and I will make you fisher of men. So what we realize, is that even here, in the very beginning of what we could say is the beginning of our faith, the calling of people to follow and becomes fishers of men is a core part of christianity.

“Follow Me, I will make you a fisher of men.” Jesus in the very first written interaction with Simon and Andrew hear the call to follow, but also Jesus is very clear on the expectations of Peter… He says, I will make you fishers of men. He’s saying, I will make you disciples, and then you’ll become disciples makers. My question is, to be a disciple would we be willing to drop everything to follow Christ?

I mean, come on, is there not a difference between a person who’s dead in their trespasses and sins and a person who now has the spirit of HIm who raised Christ from the dead dwelling in them. Vs someone who’s following behind Jesus and watching and learning and desiring, but yet are they truly a follower of Christ? Should there not be a marked difference in our lives when we follow Jesus.

I mean, we’ve seen it where you go, Wow, that’s not normal. That person has been turned around. That person is filled with the Spirit. But then there’s also such a big number of people that come to these Sunday gatherings where you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference by their lifestyle, actions, even words and so now you’re trying to get everyone in this gathering to do something together, in unity and I’m concerned that a lot of them have not really made a commitment to follow Jesus.

They believe in the lifestyle of Jesus than living the style of life in Jesus. Right! I mean we have the t-shirts, we have our bibles, we have our lingo but where is the life change in all of that? Where’s the heart change by the gospel? Where’s the desire to live everyday life to know Jesus, and to have others know Jesus just as we have come to know Him!

Where’s the devotion to one another like we read in the book of acts? Where’s the love in the churhc like we read of in Acts? When does that begin for the modern day church? So how do we do that? It begins by being an authentic follower of Jesus Christ. And an authentic follower of Jesus is one who sees Jesus in His full glory, and as full authority. An authentic follower sees Jesus for who he really is.

Remember when the disciples were asked, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” But then Jesus goes, I don't want to know who they think I am, who do you, he makes it person… he says "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” To be authentic followers we’ve got to know who Jesus truly is and what that means to us, and how we live out following Him in everyday life is depend upon seeing Christ as the king of our hearts.

Holiness is just that. It baffles me that there could be people singing, “you’re the king of my heart” with no realization that Jesus is not the king of anything in their life, but just an acquaintance of the heart. I just know about him. If we do not see Jesus for who he really is, We will never proclaim Jesus confidently in the world that is constantly living in darkness and rejecting him.

I say that because of this.. To call people, to make disciples who are not disciples themselves, that’s pretty much a dead end. Listen to that again: To call people, to make disciples who are not disciples themselves, that’s pretty much a dead end. IN the book growing up by Robby Gallaty, he writes “When the church becomes an end in itself, it ends. When Sunday school, as great as it is, becomes an end in itself, it ends.

When small groups ministry becomes an end in itself, it ends. When the worship service becomes an end in itself, it ends. What we need is for discipleship to become the goal, and then the process never ends. The process is fluid. It is moving. It is active. It is a living thing. It must continue to go on. Every disciple must make disciples.” SO, let’s go back to our question…

how do we do that? Well, first we aim to follow, but in the following Jesus must command every step of our life. Flip over with me to Matthew 28… and find with me verse 18. 8 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. IN this moment, what Jesus is saying is this.. I’m king. I’m Lord. There is no more questions.

He has lived a perfect life, He has died the death you and I deserved to die on the cross and He has risen from the dead in victory over sin. He is about to ascend into heaven and be seated at the right hand of God in this moment…. And He’s saying, I have authority over everything. Sometimes people will say, “I’ve come to the point where I’ve decided to make Jesus Lord of my life.” Whenever you hear that, realize that person really never had a choice in the matter.

Jesus isn’t Lord because we choose to make Him that. He is Lord already. What we choose is whether we’ll bow our knee to His Lordship now—or will we bow the knee to His Lordship when it’s too late. He is Lord. That is a fact. Think about what that means in our lives. As our Lord, our lives are His too direct. He determines where we go, how we live, what we do, and he determines who comes and goes.

If you remember last week, we become servants and slaves. This is what it means to be a disciple: we die to ourselves, surrendering our right to determine the direction of our lives. He determines where we live, how we live, what we do. He has commanded us to make disciples and He can lead us to do that in all kinds of different ways. He might be calling you to be a Sunday school teacher.

He might be calling you to sell all you have and become a missionary overseas… or he might be calling you away from your sick and dying mother to pastor a church. Our lives are His to determine how we live. So What’s the first answer to how do we make disciples?, We follow Christ as a disciple of Christ under His lordship and authority to will and do what he calls for us in our life.

And there are three implications that he teaches us to do as a disciple totally sold out to Christ… And the first one is this: He Teaches Us,and commands us to Share the Word. Jesus in this moment of Matthew 28 is telling his disciples that they re to go share the word with people they do not know and to people who have never heard it. And that’s pretty much everyone.

I believe we have disconnected evangelism from our every day christian lives. We’ve made church more about comfort than conviction. Can I ask something, what’s the purpose of Sunday school. It’s to teach right? What’s the purpose of small groups? It’s to teach right? What’s the purpose of coming to church, hearing some songs, hearing some words and walking out of here, maybe feeling good about ourselves, but not desiring to share the gospel with others?

That’s comfort! Church aim to do this kind of comfort church every week, but yet I’m sure if you go into any church that follows this pattern of church service, Sunday school and small groups, you’ll find that they have disconnected evangelism from their purpose. Why? Because it’s uncomfortable. We need holy Spirt boldness in our life. Remember in acts 4:13.. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished.

What happened later in chapter 4? Peter and John returned to the church and the church prayed for them to have boldness to share the gospel with others. And then it says in verse 31, after they prayed, the place was shaken and the Spirit filled them and they went and spoke the word boldly. Listen, church… evangelizing is not a solo Sport.. we’re called to encourage one another. Paul and John evangelized by sharing the word boldly, and they accomplished that not in their own power, but in the power of the Holy Spirit, and in the prayers of within the local church.

Secondly, Show us the Word. Go and make disciples, and do what.. baptize them. After we share the word, we show the word in baptism. In Christian baptism we’re identifying with Jesus and with the gospel. Romans 6 tells us we are put in water as a picture of death to sin and self, then we are raised out of the water as a picture of being raised to life with Christ.

We see in Ephesians 2 that baptism is a picture of being publicly identified with Christ’s life, death, burial and resurrection, showing that we are now followers of Him. But baptism goes deeper than that. Not only are we identified with the life of Christ, but we’re also identified with the body of Christ. When you were baptized it was you becoming a part of the local body of Christ. When we’re baptized, we’re saying, “I belong to Christ as a member of His body, the church.” This is so significant in the process of disciple-making.

We share the Word so they might believe the gospel, then we see them baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We teach them to understand that their life is now identified not just with Christ but also with the community of faith—people who will help them grow in the life they now have in Christ. Now, think of this…. Imagine for a moment you left here today and you led someone to Christ.

How would they begin to grow? How is the new believer going to begin to grow in Christ? How will they learn to study the Bible, for example? You could give them some books on Bible study, or recommend they go to a particular Bible study—and that would be helpful, yes. But How is that believer going to learn to pray? Maybe you’re thinking, “Wait a minute. In order to show somebody else how to study the Bible, I’ve actually got to know how to study the Bible myself.

I’ve got to start praying myself, to lead someone else to pray. I’m convinced that every follower of Jesus will plateau in their relationship with Christ—we’ll hit a ceiling—as long as we’re just living for ourselves. This is where being comfortable sets in…. When we’re ok living for ourselves. When we live for ourselves we become comfortable. But if we’re living to see other disciples grow in the image of Christ, grow in the Word, grow in prayer, grow in evangelism, grow in disciple-making themselves, then we have to show them what all of these things are.

I just wonder…What is our plan for multiplication?!! Do we have one? Is it just, Lord, I hope you send people here to church, or is it, Lord, put people in my life, or the ones already in my life and lead me to lead them to you. One calls for comfort and the other calls us to pursue people with conviction. I guess if a church has no plan for multiplication, then they can just expect nothing but opportunities for division?

Showing the word is living out of our baptism in the body, through love that is in Jesus Christ. Lastly, Look with me in Matthew 28 and verse 20, “Teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you” We share the Word, We show the Word, then We teach the Word—teaching them to obey everything Christ has commanded. Teaching is more than just standing in front of people and relaying information.

Yes, that’s one avenue of teaching. But for instance, I remember teaching my son to change a tire, I didn’t just have him watch from the side on how I did it. I put the tools in his hands, I explained what needed to be done, he went and began to struggle with the lug nuts, but I came along side of him and helped him. We jacked up the car, removed and plugged the tire, put it back on, and we drove away.

Teaching is taking your knowledge and experience and walking along side of someone in hopes that one day they will be able to replicate and reproduce what you’ve taught them. So, Let me ask you… are you a receiver of the Word or are you a reproducer of the Word? How do we listen in such a way that we’re not just receiving, but that we can also reproduce it? How can we say, “Everything I’m learning about the Word isn’t just intended for me, but it’s to be passed on through me to other people whom I can help grow in Christ”?

This is disciple-making, when every disciple of Christ shares the Word, shows the Word and then teaches the Word. We’re going, we’re baptizing and we’re teaching people to obey everything Christ commands. Church, The recipe for multiplication is simple. All it takes is the word of God, the Spirt of God and the people of God willing to put all three to practice. And we’ve got all three here at this church, and around this table.

The final question I have for us is this…: “Will the Word stop with you or will it spread through you?” *

I Will, Attitude

I grew up in one of the most iconic moments in basketball history. In the 90’s everyone knew who Micheal Jordon was, and of course, like the commercials, everyone, including us kids, wanted to be like Mike. When I was in 7th grade our school had called all the boys who was interested in playing basketball to come to the office so that we could walk across the street to the Saint Patricks Gym to try out for our schools basketball team.

One of my core memories of that day was standing in line at the half court line, and we were asked to make layups. Now, I had no clue what a layup was. So, what I did, was, I position myself near the end of the line so I could study all the other failed attempts of layups so that when it was my turn, I had a better understanding of what was being asked of me.

And let me just tell you, I failed miserably. Thankfully, there was like 20 other boys before me that did so too. And it wasn't just layups, I didn’t even know what a foul shot was. I didn’t know the rules of the game. I didn’t know what traveling was, or how to do a double dribble, although for some reason I kept getting called on all of those things. I literally had no clue what I was doing.

Needless to say, I did not make the team. That next summer, was one of the most iconic moments for me. I was determined to become a better basketball player. Everyday, I would dribble my ball 1-2 miles to the Jane Lew basketball court and I taught myself ball handling skills. I would get involved in pick up games and teach myself offensive and defensive moves. I would watch sports center every morning to see what the pros were doing, and then I would go and recreate their moves.

My favorite player was Dennis Rodman. I loved how he would just rebound with aggression and with power. And of course I chose Rodman because my best friend would always pick to pretend he was Jordan. Another friend would be Pippin or Steve Kerr. For two years, I worked hard on playing basketball. Every moment of every day I would dribble, I would workout by running and doing suicides, I would train relentlessly.

Every summer our coaches would have open gyms for practice. I was a kid with a single mom, and so we couldn’t afford it. But they would let anyone come to watch and shoot around, and I would show up with my basketball, and I would watch Coach Stout teach the girls team drills and he had these straps that would go on your guide arm to keep it in place to teach your shooting form.

And I would, shoot around on one and as he trained the girls on the other, and I would mimic what they were doing. And then after two years of training, and hustling, and working hard, a friend and I decided to try out for the 9th grace basketball team together. Jordan and Rodman. We would be unstoppable. At try outs, I was the fastest kid on the team. I beat every person in all of my 1 on 1 competitions.

I had the best and most razzle dazzle passes, my ball handling skills were top notch… but the issue came on the final day of tryouts. Close to the end of the practice, I twisted my ankle for the umpteenth time. Every practice, I played like Rodman. Aggression. Speed. Power. And every practice I got hurt in some way, I would walk it off and come back for the next day of tryouts.

ON the final day of tryouts, Practice was over and we all waited for the coach to come back out to post the list of those on the team. I will admit, I was still nervous. I hobbled over to the list that our coach had just taped to the wall, and to my surprised, I was cut! It was the worse day of my life. And to top it off, my best friend made the team, and I looked over and saw my mom had showed up early and she watched how fast and awesome I was, but yet in my heart, she showed up to see me lose.

As I was gathering my things to leave, coach put his arm around me and pulled me aside and said, Matthew, You were the best at everything I asked for you to do You can tell you spent a lot of time working hard. You had ball handling skills, you had court awareness, your shots were on target, you won match and every obstacle I put in front of you. But before you leave, I want to just tell you why I cut you, First, you’ve never played organized basketball and so since you’ve only played street ball, you don’t know simple plays.

Simple plays that you would have learned on a team in little league basketball. And secondly, you have the wrong attitude. You were too prideful. You were cocky, you were the best and you knew it and you made sure everyone else knew it as well. And in your pridefulness, you twisted you ankle. Every tryout you’ve gotten injured in some way, and And I need a guard that can stay healthy and has the right attitude.

I learned that day, that you can have all the skill required to do something, but skill doesn’t trump having the right attitude. I’m sure we all can sit around a table and tell similar stories. How important is attitude in life? Maybe it’s when we’re driving down the freeway and someone cuts us off and our attitude is to throw some sort of obscenities at them, or give them some sort of hand getures.

I remmeder one time back in 2017 when we lived by serve pro. I was on my way here to church and hill I was at mcdonads they told me to pull up to the front because my mean wasnt done. The guy behind me must have not realized that for some reason. He pulled up beside me, slammed on his horn, and as I looked over he was yelling something and giving me some sign language and then drove off.

I was like, man, you need Jesus. Maybe its when we walk up to the return desk at a store and they won’t take our return without a receipt. What is our attitude like? How idd that effect your attitude when you had one thought of getting your money back, but they sad no. What about family arguments when emotions run high and individuals resort to shouting, name-calling, or disrespecting one another.

I want to make this very clear, “Our attitudes determine our success to forge our future more than any factor in life.” There’s a book by John Maxwell called, the Power of attitude and he writes: “Never underestimate the power of your attitude. It is the advance man of our true selves. Its roots are inward, but its fruit is outward. It is our best friend, or our worst enemy. It is more honest and more consistent than our words.

It has an outward look based on past experiences. It is the thing which draws people to us or repels them. It is never content until it is expressed. It is the librarian of our past; it’s the speaker of our present, and it’s the prophet of our future.” So, what we learn is that Our Attitude is the key too many things God calls us into. It’s the key to getting along with others and moving ahead in life.

It’s the key to listening to the Holy Spirit, hearing him, and obeying and walking forward into what God calls you into. And not just walking forward, but walking forward in peace and with Joy. And so, what we learn is the a worker with the right attitude will learn to do the job better and proceed cheerfully in doing that job. We can go to work and be happy about it, even when our job is the worse.

The husband or wife with the right attitude will handle difficult situations in a much more effective way and enhance the relationship substantially. You can respect your spouse with the right attitude when you’re willing to love one anther as Christ loved the church. And When everything else is equal or if there is any doubt, the coach will always choose the athlete with the best attitude. So will the employer or the man or woman seeking a someone to spend their life with.

Your attitude in life will determine your success. So what can we learn about attitudes in the Bible? Well first, Attitudes are not caused by people or circumstances. Some people would say, I would be happy if it wasn't for all the jerks in my life. That guy that cut me off on the interstate… I would be happen if they would get a flat tire. Or that guy who sped past me going 100.

I hope you get pulled over and an expositive ticket… in Jesus name. If it wasn’t for all the idiots around me and I would be just fine… that isn’t true. Adam and Eve had a perfect life, living in paradise. They had perfect bodies. They would never die because they had access to the tree of life. They had daddy walking around with them and was in perfect union with him.

They never experienced chicken pox or covid. They never had to experience death and sickness. They’ve never been poor, or homeless. They never had to feel the loneliness, anxiety, depression. Nothing negative ever happened to them And yet, in all of this goodness they still were unsatisfied, and ungrateful and rebellious. King David is another curious person when it comes to attitude. Because think about this, in the worst time of his life, he had the best attitude.

And the best times of his life, he had the worst attitudes. Most of your psalms in the Bible are written from David life of all the wrong things happening. The philistreans tried to kill him, King Saul tried to kill him. He was running away all the time. And yet, in these moments, his attitude was what? One of praise and adoration to God. He had a trusting heart and a yearning heart for God.

What happened in all the good times? There’s war and instead of going and fighting with his men, he was successful enough that he had the choice to stay behind and have others fight his battles for him. What happened? He met Bathsheba and had this great sin. We can also look at the consensus. Where he got to a moment of great growth and took a consensus to see how powerful he had become, and in his pridefulness many people died.

In the worst time of his life, he had the best attitude. And the best times of his life, he had the worst attitude. The apostle Paul in acts 16 was in Philippi, he had the Bible tells us that on Sabbath he had gone down to the river to find a place for prayer and of course, like any of us extroverts we see people and we being conversation with them.

The lady invited him to her house, and it turned out that this lady wa sa fortune teller, So Paul realized it and cast out the demon in her. Of course that makes no sense because people are mad now, because this woman is free but the owners of the woman dint like it. SO they had Paul and Silas whipped, flogged, and thrown into jail. What did Paul and Silas do.

They sang. They worshipped. They praised GOd. I want to believe, they saw the living God heal that woman, and it was worthy of praise. There s deception in life… if I had a better circumstance, I would have a better attitude. That’s false. It’s untrue. I remember when I was working in the lab down in Mill Hall and when I would get mad, or frustrated at someone or something.

You’d catch me singing a song under my breath. I would sing to myself, Don’t worry, about a thing, because every little thing, is going to be alright. What was I doing? I was adjusting and calibrating my attitude. I was reminding myself, It’s gonna be ok. There’s always tomorrow. And if I mess-up to where it’s really bad, there’s always grace. Proverbs 23:7 tells us, "As a person thinks in their heart, so is he/she.” Attitude is determined not by our circumstance, but by where our heart is.

If you wake up and go, work sucks. It’s hot out there.. I hate these people. You’re gonna calibrate your heart to see every situation, and see every person in a negative way. You can’t speak the gospel into anyones life with an attitude of hate towards others. Paul teaches us in Philippians, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” What would happen at work, or in your home, or when you’re at the grocery store and you had the attitude of, kindness and gentleness and compassion?

What would happen if our heart was calibrated to see others as better than ourself. What would happen if we looked not only for your interest, but also to the interest of others? Did you know a key to Spiritual growth, and church growth is having the right kind of relationship. It’s true.. first, it’s with Jesus. And second, it’s with others. Love God, with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength, and then love others as you would love yourself.

Can I ask you, how many of you here today desire unity? I meanI’ve preached it for four years. Anyone? Would you say, unity right now, between you and me, through Christ and in Christ would be what we need? And maybe not what we need as much as what we desire and crave? Well, just like attitude, and making a daily decision in our mind and heart to love one another as Christ taught us, it’s the same with unity.

Unity only works when individuals have made a decision to pursue it with thier whole heart. Yesterday I finished a two day conference about church planting and multiplication, and we got into a session about vision and they asked the question, what makes a church, a church? Right, easy enough question. Where would the church start. And do you know what the first answer was? Covenant. What makes a church a church is a group of 2 or more individuals making a commitment to one another as the body of believers, to love one another.

Each individual in the group must decide on whether or not to meet the needs and the good of the group before his or her own needs. Listen, this is me being transparent. NO one will walk in that door, and watch us have poor attitudes, and not love for one another and say, I want that. Our conference leader said this, I can walk into any church and tell you immediately whether or not there’s unity in that church.

And do you want to know how I can know that? If there is joy in the church there is unity. But if I walk in and I find no joy, I can guarantee you, I’ll find a church that is back biting one another, murmering about one another, selfish and conceited. If there is no joy, they are not pursuing the manifest presence of God together. And I took that personal.

That stabbed me in the heart, because let’s be honest, do we find a group of Christians here, living in joy? No one at this conference knew me, and they didnt know our situation.. but I was convicted. SO, I asked myself, how can we have the attitude of joy, and seeking unity? Paul teaches us in Romans, (5:1-5) Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

It’s realizing we have been stifled by faith, and now we have peace available to us with God, through Jesus. The only way momentum church is going to gain the momentum that we crave, is when we in unity begin to realize that we have been saved by grace, through faith in Jesus. And when we put the needs of each other above our own, we can stand together and rejoice in the hope that we have in the glory of God.

And we will see our sufferings, as moments of God not just testing us… but as moments where God is growing us. He’s taking us from grace to grace… from faith to faith, from victory to victory… because his desire is to sancifty us. To make us holy. And that begins, right here… at this very moment… for you and I to make a decision. Unity only works when we decide to love one another, as Christ loved us.

I want to close with some application… just bear with me… because this will helps. In life there are four attitude killers. These are attitudes that we calibrate our life with that kill relationships with others. First one, having wrong expectations. It’s living life saying, life will be easy, and people will like me. I can guarantee you, life isn’t easy, and not everyone will like you. Some wrong expectations are, God’s Love for Us Should Look Just Like What We Want.

We Won’t Be Persecuted for Our Faith. Jesus said, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (John 15:18, NIV). Another wrong expectation is that Jesus Must Return in Our Lifetime. There’s a story that goes along with this, but I’ll just give you the just of it… A soldier fighting in Vietnam was captured and he and his men were tortured. There were two groups of men, and the one groups leader kept telling the men, don’t worry, we’ll be out by Christmas.

Christmas came and they were still there. We’ll be out by easter. Easter came and they were still there. The leader of the other group looked at his men and said, I can’t guarantee you when we will be rescued, but have hope, I can promise you it will happen. I just don’t know when. After some years in the prison, do you know which group made it out? The one who’s hope was set far in the future.

Every man of that other leader who kept giving timelines and and false hope died. The writer of this story had said, those men died of broken hope. Jesus is coming back, and I don’t know when. I never cared about the when because I know there are those I love not ready. There might even be some here today, that your heart, and attitude isn’t of Christ. Are you sure you’re ready for Jesus to return?

Another attitude killer is this, Entitlement. Entitlement is Believing that everyone owes you something. Paul said, I’m a debtor, first to Christ, and im a debtor as a servant to others. Entitlement is killed at the cross when we pick up the humility of Christ and we’re robbed in his righteousness. The third attitude killer is this: Negativity. All one ever does is focuses on what is wrong. Ya know something?

I can tell you all kinds of things I find wrong with anything, and anyone. You know what’s wrong… the fact that biscuits and gravy doesnt make you skinny. That’s wrong. But that negative view doesn’t stop me from having biscuits and gravy. If something is wrong, first ask yourself, is it me? I mean, I might be wearing the wrong lens to see this situation. Maybe it’s wrong because I have set a wrong expectation?

Maybe it’s wrong because I feel entitled? Maybe it’s wrong because I see it in a negative. Way? These are attitude killers, What are some attitude builders? Gratitude. Psalm 100:4 says, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name.” Did you know that God will not allow grumblers in his presence. Let me report that… CS lewis wrote: Hell begins with a grumbling mood, always complaining, always blaming others.

Bily Graham said, “Grumbling and gratitude are, for the child of God, in conflict. Be grateful and you won't grumble. Grumble and you won't be grateful. You want an attuned that builds, then begin by seeking a heart of gratitude, and a life of servitude. Second, Faith. Faith builds attitude. Faith is focusing on God and not on people. David prays, “I have set the LORD always before me.” That means we put God first.

God is before me. That means everything I walk into, I walk where God has already been. When I set God before me. I know God is with me. Whatever comes, has to come through God first to get to me. So no matter what I face, I face it as a second hand witness. And let me just remind yo, faith isn’t just living comfortable, it’s stepping into the unknown with the God that knows.

That’s faith, that’s trust. Finally, respect. Be respectful to people. I love this thought… you don’t know everyone’s story, so be respectful of what they are going through and how they are handling it. Not everyone is holy and fully trusting in God. Jesus tells us, "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” This is literally "the golden rule" of the Bible.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Paul tells us, Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. You can’t honor a person by smearing their name. Or by lifting yourself up over them. That’s pride. And a attitude killer. You can’t honor someone by refusing to serve someone else. I want to challenge you this week. Work on your attitude. Let’s stand together.

I learned this at family camp. There’s a tribe in south america that missionaries brought he gospel to. Over some time they returned to see how they had grown in the Lord, and they noticed that whey they prayed, instead of holding thier hands up ot receive blessing, they would first hold their hands down. So they asked them, where dod you learn this and they said, we can’t receive blessing when we’re holding onto other things.

So we pray with our hands down, to let go of everything else, and then when we have let it go, we raise our hands to receive what God is wanting us to have… and if your wondering, what is it that God wants me to have.. it’s Jesus. Let’s pray… *

Sacrifice and Offering

I want to invite you to open your bibles with me to the book of Hebrews, for just one second, and then we’re going to go spend some time in Leviticus. In case your wondering, its that book right after exodus, and I usually call it the buzzkill book. The reason being is because whenever you get the desire to read the Bible, most people will open their bibles up to Genesis and begin reading all theses great stories of Adam and Eve, Abraham's faith, and the craziness of Issac and Jacob and their families. Of course, the story of Joseph is one of my favorites. Then you get into Exodus and find this amazing story of of Moses, and the freeing of the Israelites, and the red sea crossing… and then all of sudden you come face to face with Leviticus. And immediately you are thrusted into a book all about laws and do this and don’t do that.. and you’re like wheres the stories? Wheres the adventure… where’s the drama? This is a bunch of ceremonies and procedures and stuff. If you’re like most people and you were getting into Leviticus, you drudged your way through these first chapters of this book, trying to make sense of altars and sacrifices and offerings and animals and blood and gore—trying to determine, “What in the world does this mean? What is this stuff about? And I know some of you are probably going, well, pastor, isn’t the law abolished… why would I even need to read all of this stuff. Cant I just overlook it and move on to Deuteronomy?? Well, like a parent… I'm just going to say…no… its important. It really is.. Yes, you get to enjoy your meat, potatoes and dessert, but listen, you need to eat your vegetables too.

So, Right now, we are in a 4 weeks series called, Sacrifice. Where we’ve began last week by seeing Jesus as the Lamb… and today, we’re going to explore this title, Jesus as the offering. But to understand what Jesus is offering, we need to understand what it means from the beginning.

And I’ll do that by telling you a story. Having kids, Alicia and I have really enjoyed watching our children grow up. We both come from cooking backgrounds—I began working in kitchens very young when my mother was a waitress, and Alicia grew up in her grandparents' diner. Eventually, we both worked at her grandparents' resort restaurant. We both love to cook. So naturally, when Gabriel, Chloe, and Abby came along, we bought them a large toy kitchen set with all the cool features—pots, pans, fake food, buttons that made cooking sounds. They loved to imitate us as we cooked. Now that our kids are older, someday our recipes will be handed down to them. They'll graduate from that toy stove to cooking on real stoves in their own homes. And while we miss the cuteness of seeing them play with their toy kitchen, we're excited to see them create real dishes. And This got me thinking: Why start with the toy version instead of going straight to the real deal? The answer is obvious. In their immaturity, we wanted them to have fun and use their imagination. But we were also planting seeds in their tender hearts that would hopefully blossom into a love for cooking and hospitality. We wanted to pass down our passion for bringing people together around a table—one of the most Jesus-like things we can do. At the same time, we didn't want to overwhelm them with technology they weren't ready for or put something dangerous in their hands. The toy kitchen was age-appropriate preparation for the real thing to come.

IV. And so, I tell you this story because I feel, this is how Leviticus is designed compared to the gospel of Jesus we see in the New testament. Things we read about and see God set in place in the old testament, are precursors to the things to come later. And so, to have a passion for the things to come, which we get to experience now, we need to see where they originated and why. So, to begin with… I want to read this Scripture in Hebrews chapter 10 and then were going to go back into the book of Leviticus and see the fisher price version of sacrifice that leads us back into Hebrews 10 later on… so, once I read this, you can put a marker, or a ribbon here, because we’ll return… In Hebrews chapter 10, verse 1 says this… “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.”

What did the Hebrew writer mean, the law was only a shadow of things to come? So I want us to explore that a little bit. Let’s start here in Leviticus, and let’s think about the Fisher-Price range in Leviticus. All right? When we come to the book of Leviticus, Leviticus picks up right where Exodus left off. And where we find ourselves is that the children of Israel is now at the foot of this mountain called Mount Sinai and they are experiencing the glory of God. They have the tablets in hand, And so now what they need is they need to know how to worship. But how? How do we come close to a holy God? And thats what I believe the Israelites were desiring. And so, God begins like this in Leviticus chapter 1 verse 1.. The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. He said, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When anyone among you brings an offering to the Lord, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock. Now, let’s turn over a few pages to the end of chapter seven, and see if this doesn’t sound somewhat familiar. Verse 37 in Leviticus chapter seven says, These, then, are the regulations for the burnt offering, the grain offering, the sin offering, the guilt offering, the ordination offering and the fellowship offering, 38 which the Lord gave Moses at Mount Sinai in the Desert of Sinai on the day he commanded the Israelites to bring their offerings to the Lord. Those are bookends., Chapter 1, and chapter 7, are book ends to this whole sacrificial offering system. And between these bookends, God describes five different offerings. Now, I know what you're thinking - 'Five different offerings? That seems complicated!' But each one served a specific purpose in helping people connect with God, so between these two book ends, chapters 1-5 explain what theses offerings are for… The burnt offering (chapter 1) was completely consumed by fire—nothing remained. It represented total dedication, saying "I want all of you, not just part of you." The grain offering (chapter 2) wasn't about sin but gratitude—bringing the first portion of your harvest to acknowledge God as provider. This parallels our modern practice of giving tithes and offerings. The peace offering (chapter 3) was uniquely shared—part went to God, part to the priest, and part to the worshipper. They actually ate together, symbolizing relationship and fellowship with God. The sin offering (chapter 4) addressed unintentional sins, providing a way to deal with guilt and restore the relationship with God when we fall short. The guilt offering (chapters 5-6) focused on making restitution—not just with God but with others you had wronged, requiring repayment plus 20%. It taught that our actions have consequences. Now, if you put all five of those together, in-between the book ends of chapter 1 to 7, You’ll find that the first three offerings were voluntary offerings, not to be done on any particular prescribed occasion, but they were intended to be that which fostered “a pleasing aroma to the Lord.” Which means, an act of worship that was sincere and well received.

But those last two offerings—the sin offering and guilt offering—these were different. These weren't optional. If you messed up, you had to bring these. If you broke one of God's rules, you needed to make it right, through these offerings. They were designed to help you receive forgiveness. It's pretty interesting if you think about it. Some offerings were about showing love to God freely. Others were about fixing the relationship when we've damaged it. Some were about giving to God because we're grateful. Others were about receiving what we need most—forgiveness.

But all of them leads to one thing… They all point to our need for something greater than ourselves. And Leviticus 1-7 teach us that, through these offerings, there three things we learn. First, faithfulness to God. We need to give Him our whole lives, not just pieces. Those burnt offerings and grain offerings weren't about God needing animals or grain - they were about teaching us what real commitment looks like. God doesn't want your leftovers or your spare time. He wants all of you.

Second, fellowship with God. We were created for relationship with Him, not just religion. Remember that peace offering where you actually got to share the meal? That was God's way of saying, 'I don't just want your stuff - I want to connect with you.' We weren't made to just follow rules; we were made to know God personally.

And third, forgiveness from God. Because we all mess up and need a way to make things right. Those sin and guilt offerings were addressing the reality that we all face - we blow it sometimes. We need a way back. We need forgiveness that actually works.

Here's how I'd sum it up: God was using those sacrifices to show people two things – the seriousness of their sin and their desperate need for a Savior. And both of those things are only fully addressed at the cross of Christ. Think about it this way. If our kids tried to bake real cookies in her toy oven, nothing would happen. The food would go in raw and come out exactly the same way. Those toy ovens can't transform anything. In the same way, all those animal sacrifices couldn't actually transform the human heart or permanently remove sin. But just like our kids would eventually move on to cooking with a real oven that actually transforms raw ingredients into something nourishing, God was preparing His people to recognize the real thing when it came. He was getting them ready for Jesus, whose sacrifice would truly transform us from the inside out.

That's why Hebrews 10 is so powerful. It shows us how Jesus fulfills and completes everything those sacrifices were pointing toward. So let's begin in Hebrews chapter 10 and read verse 1 again.. Verse 1 says, "For since the law….” Let's stop for a moment.. because look down in verse 8… look at what it says in Hebrews 10:8, "When he said above, 'You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings' (these are offered according to the law)…’" You see what's happening here? The writer of Hebrews is talking about those exact same offerings we just looked at in Leviticus! He's saying, This is mind-blowing if you think about it. God set up this elaborate system of sacrifices, but then says He never really desired them or took pleasure in them? What's that about? It's because they were never the final goal. That means of sacrifices were teaching tools. They were training wheels. God wasn't after dead animals - He was after transformed hearts. That's why verse 1 says the law "has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities." Like my daughter's toy kitchen compared to a real one - it resembled the real thing but couldn't actually do what the real thing does. And here's the problem with that shadow system - the verse continues: "it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.” Think about that phrase "continually offered” for a moment…. - they had to keep repeating the same sacrifices year after year after year. Why? Because they never actually fixed the problem! If they had worked, the sacrifices would have stopped because people would have been cleansed once and for all. But instead, as verse 3 says, "in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin every year." Every sacrifice was essentially saying, "You're still a sinner. You still have this problem. You're still not right with God. That's the Fisher-Price range - a good teaching tool, but it couldn't actually cook anything. It couldn't actually transform anything. It couldn't actually solve the problem.

Now let's see what Jesus did differently as the offering…. Look at verse 5. It says, "Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, 'Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me.’" This is incredible! Instead of another animal, God prepared a body for Jesus. This isn't about another lamb or goat - this is about God's Son taking on human flesh and becoming the perfect Lamb. The offering is no longer something outside of us, nor is it an action to be performed - it's a person. And not just any person, but God Himself in human form. Jesus continues in verse 7, "Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.’" Isn’t this is what God was after all along! Not the blood of animals, but willing obedience. That's what none of those sacrifices could provide. The animals didn't choose to be sacrificed. The grain couldn't decide to be offered. But Jesus willingly chose to do God's will. He tells us in John 10:18, No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.” And look at what happens next in verse 9: "He takes away the first to establish the second." Jesus doesn't just improve the old system - He completely replaces it! It's not an upgrade; it's a whole new operating system. Now here's the part that amazes me most. Look at verses 11-12. It says, "Every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.” Did you catch that contrast? The priests were always STANDING because their work was never done. It was like being on a religious treadmill - constantly running but never arriving. But Jesus? After His sacrifice, He SAT DOWN. Done. Complete. Finished. Tetleistia… it is finished. And here's what His one-time sacrifice accomplished in verse 14: "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being made holy.” Church, with one sacrifice, Jesus did what thousands upon thousands of animal sacrifices over a thousand of years could never do. He took 5 sacrifices and perfected it with one…and through him offers the ability to be holy for he is holy.

And now, because of what Jesus has done and accomplished, because the Spirit of the living God dwells within us... our lives become an offering. Not to earn God's favor, but to express our gratitude. Not out of obligation, but out of love. Not to gain relationship with God, but because we already have it through Christ. Look, can I just be honest with you for a second? There are times when I too struggle with this. I really do. Sometimes I catch myself dividing my life into boxes - here's my church box, here's my family box, here's my work box. And I treat them like they're completely separate. And honestly, I don’t know why I am drawn to put my life into boxes.. But then I read Romans chapter 12, it wrecks me. Because Paul doesn't say, "Take your Sunday morning worship and make it really impressive to God." He doesn't say, "Make sure you're doing enough religious activities to balance out your non religious life.” No. After eleven chapters of explaining what Jesus did for us and our insuficnianry to save ourselves, that we all fall short of the glory of GOd, and that JEuss is the perfect offering, Paul says something that completely demolishes our religious boxes. He says: "Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.” Do you realize what this means? The separation we've created between sacred and secular isn't from God. It's from us. Those moments when you're changing diapers? That’s a Sacred moment. That conversation with your difficult coworker? Holy ground. The way you handle your finances? That’s Worship. It's true... you can be brushing your teeth and be praising, 'you are worthy...' And I think about things like this and ask,..What if we've been missing it this whole time? What if real life isn't just equal to religious life... what if it's actually where God wants to meet us the most? What if God just wants to meet you and me in our everyday ordinary life. Listen, church, God doesn't want a visit from you on Sunday. He wants a life with you every day. You know what's interesting? This invitation to bring our whole lives to God isn't just freeing - it's also challenging. Because it means there's no part of our lives that's off-limits to Him. No compartment we can keep to ourselves. The world tells us something very different. It says, 'Keep your faith private. Keep your religion contained. What you do Monday through Saturday is your business.’ And Paul saw this tension coming. That's why in the very next verse, Romans 12:2, he says: "Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without thinking.” Guys, look around! Every day this world is trying to squeeze us into its mold. There's this constant pressure to conform, to fit in, to chase after what everyone else is chasing. And the scary thing is how easy it happens! We don't even realize it. We're just breathing it in - the values of this world, the priorities, the ways of thinking. Before you know it, you're making decisions exactly like everyone else without even questioning why. But Jesus didn't die on the cross just to forgive your sins and then leave you the same! His sacrifice wasn't just a get-out-of-hell-free card. When He offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice, He was inviting us into a completely different way of living! The issue is… we’re caught between two ways of living… Think about it… The world is constantly whispering, "Be comfortable. Take the easy path. Look out for yourself." And on the other hand…. religion often responds, "Follow these rules. Check these boxes. Perform these rituals.” But Jesus? Jesus offers something totally different. Not comfort. Not rules. But relationship. Connection. Transformation from the inside out. Paul nails it when he says, "Fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out." Not by trying harder to follow religious rules, but by focusing your heart on the One who gave everything for you. And so heres the issue,… The world pulls toward comfort; while religion pushes toward rules. But Jesus offers a third way: relationship through everyday worship in our ordinary lives

As Peter comes up…

Folks, when this truth grips your heart—when you truly understand what Jesus has done as your perfect offering—everything changes! Your Monday morning worship isn't a burden; it's a RESPONSE to undeserved grace! You don't live from religious obligation anymore—you live from RELATIONSHIP! From DELIGHT! From WONDER! So how do we actually live as offerings in response to Jesus' perfect offering? Let me give you three ways before we leave today: First, show up honestly. Drop the religious mask with God! The God of the universe doesn't want your polished performance—He wants YOU. Listen churhc, Your brokenness isn't a barrier I need you to understand that… —it’s an INVITATION for His grace to flood in! Oh man.. David knew this so well… he writes…”The Lord is near to the brokenhearted" (Psalm 34:18). Don't you see? Your weakness is the stage where His strength performs its greatest work!

Second, show up for others. In Leviticus, offerings created connection. Today, our greatest offering isn't stuff—it's PRESENCE. Jesus made this crystal clear in Matthew 25 when He said, "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in..." When the people asked when they did this, He responded, "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." Our presence with others becomes our presence with Jesus. Just this week at Red's Grill, God nudged me to notice an older gentleman who seemed to need connection. Nothing dramatic—just asking thew waitress to pay for his meal. But in that moment, that small sanctuary was built. At Safeway on Monday there was this elderly lady pushing her cart... she looked at me and smiled and I simply said, you have a beautiful smile. Connection. Holy moment was created. Later in the week, at Wendy's with my son on Friday night... we came to the speaker and after our order, I simply said, I appreciate you... every moment... is an opportunity to show up for others, and watch how Jesus works in you and through you. Your attention to others is an offering!

Finally, show up consistently. Like Daniel who prayed three times daily, find those regular touch points with God. Not because you have to, but because you GET to! Let everyday moments—your morning coffee, your commute—become holy ground where you meet with the Living God! But hear me clearly: This isn't about straining harder. It's about surrendering deeper. We can't do this on our own strength—and that's the BEAUTIFUL NEWS! Jesus is our offering. Jesus is our righteousness. Jesus is our presence. When we come broken, HE is whole. When we come weak, HE is strong. When we cannot show up, HE has already shown up for us! Your hope isn't in your ability to be perfect. Your hope is in the One who was perfect on your behalf. Christ—our substitute. Christ—our righteousness. Christ—our EVERYTHING! You are loved. Right now. Not for what you do, but for who you are in Christ. *

I Will, Worship

Last week we learned about attitudes and we learned that: Our attitudes determine our success to forge our future more than any factor in life.” We learned that unity only works when individuals have made a decision to pursue it with thier whole heart. And then we finished our time together by learning what attitude killers are, and what attitude builders are. Attitude plays such an important part in our walk with God because I’ve never met a holy Christ filled christian with a poor attitude.

Never! “I have” met christians with the right attitude that says, I am a sacrificial Church member. Paul tells us in Philippians chapter 2, verses 3-5: “Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus: who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death — even to death on a cross.” We are to have the attitude of Christ, the sacrificial attitude that took him to death on cross.

My challenge for you last week was to work on your attitude. Why? Because the things God is going to teach us over the next few weeks will just go in one ear and out the other if you have a poor attitude. This week, I want us with the right attitude to look at worship. Now, What is worship? Worship flows from the heart in recognition and response to the magnificence of Christ, and because of an understanding of the grace found solely in the gospel.

In other words, it’s not just walking in God’s omnipresence, it’s witnessing and recognizing his presence first hand, as the presence of Christ manifests himself in our life through daily adoration and affection for him. And that kind of worship is lived tangibly in two ways. Vertical worship and horizontal worship. Vertical worship is lived out in a practical, tangible way, when we embrace the truth of the gospel and embrace the relationship we have with the Holy Spirit.

That’s upward worship. But we’re never called to do this alone. So we have the second part of tangible worship and it’s the horizontal worship. Horizontal worship responds to the majesty of God or vertical worship, through Christ presences manifesting himself in me as we experience with other believers as well. That means we collectively come together to be the body of Christ. This is what we call corporate worship. Or in other words, we call this going to church.

I want to dive into that vein for a moment. What does church look like? Well, lets open our bibles up and can I have at least two people read, using two different versions of Acts chapter 2: verses 46-47. ( Read ) Would you say, that’s going to church! What do we see in this Scripture about worship and the church body? Well first, we need to realize that they were devoted to this practice.

Think about it, We devote ourselves too a lot of things. We devote ourselves to our jobs. We devote ourselves to professional sports teams. My friend has a room filled with steeler things. There s dentist in town that has a room filled with steeler things, and not only that they drive around a steelers pickup. We’re devoted in relationships. We hear things like, he is a devoted Father, or she’s a devoted Mother.

What does devoted truly mean? Well, the dictionary says that devoted means they someone is “very” loving and loyal. It means these early christians were consistently faithful, and steadfast in being together. So these early christians devoted themselves into what they were practicing. They didn’t gather to just check off the box for some legalistic faith for a distant tyrant God. No, listen, this devotion was an attitude of unity. Remember, what I said last week, Unity only works when individuals have made a decision to pursue it with their whole heart.

I can’t make you come here. I can’t make you have joy to be here. My prayer is that you will desire to be here. Not just because the door is open. Not because this is where you’ve been coming for years. But because your gather with others and worshiping God together in unity with those who are here. So, what is my responsibility as a worshipper? Well, it’s realizing that God is inviting us daily to enjoy him.

I think about Isaiah in chapter 61 where he says, I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. ISAIAH 61:10 (NIV) My responsibility is to daily enjoy God. God loves you and he wants to enjoy you just as much as we should want to enjoy him.

That’s why Romans chapter 12 is such an amazing Scripture and I like to read it from the message translation, because it really helps me understand how my life is to be in constant worship. So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. I was chewing on those last words yesterday morning…

“God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” If God is bringing the best out of me, I get the privilege of giving the best back to God, in praise. It’s like, As Paul says in Romans 7:18, “Nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.” Jesus tells us, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” But, I’m not apart from Jesus. I’m abiding in Christ!

By faith, through grace, I abide… in Him. John 15:5 says “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.” What is the first fruits that I bear in a life in union with Christ? It’s my praise, it’s my thanksgiving, its our Christ centered adoration for the Father. Jesus prays for us to be one with him and the Father, “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.

May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me” We worship God by enjoying him with our whole hearts, soul, mind and strength. C. S. Lewis said, “In commanding us to glorify him, God is inviting us to enjoy him.” God wants our worship to be motivated by love, thanksgiving, and delight, not duty. Did you know you can brush you teeth in an act of worship.

You can wash dishes as an act of worship. You can blow your nose in an act of worship… it’s true.. Im telling you, you’ll never blow your nose again once you learn to worship…..think about it. Every time you blow your nose, it’s a mini shofar horn. You can love your wife or you can love your husband as an act of worship. Think about that for a moment… how different would our marriages be, or let’s just say this for those who are not married.

How different would our marriages be and our relationships with others be, if every interaction we had with one another we did so as an act of worship to God. What if serving, and loving, and being forgiving, being helpful, having self control, and self sacrifice were ways we worship God while we act towards others. Christians everyday are missing opportunities to worship in their everyday life. Worship is a lifestyle of God bringing the best out of us, and maturing us into the likeness of Christ, so that everything we do, and everything we say brings glory to the Father.

Worship is far more than praising, singing, and praying to God. Worship is a lifestyle of enjoying God, loving him, and giving ourselves to be used for his purposes. Because when you use your life for God’s glory, everything you do becomes an act of worship. And the beauty about this truth is, that God strengthens us these moments of worship. Isaiah 40:31 says, “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (NIV). How many times have you gotten up and said, man I'm too tired for church? I don’t feel like going to church today. But then, when you did come and worshipped with others, You find yourself energized. Have you ever seen the movie Rocky? As a pastor, sometimes I think of myself like the coach in the boxing movie Rocky.

Rocky is out there in the fight, and he’s pouring his heart out and just getting beat to a pulp. The bell rings and he goes, “Thank God.” He comes to the corner, and the coach says, “You’re doing a good job.” The coach throws some water on him, pats him on the back, and says, “Now get back out there.” Sometimes I feel like that’s what I’m doing on Sunday for the church.

I’m telling people, “You’re doing a good job. Now get back out there. You can do this!” But that’s not me renewing people’s strength. It’s the Word of God. It’s songs of praise we sing with our hearts and praying together and worshiping together with other believers that renews us. These means of worship brings us hope. The Bible says in Psalm 73:16-17, “When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God; We gain spiritual strength when we gather together to worship God.

It should be fun to come to church. You and I and other people should enjoy being here. I told Alicia last week, “Man today was so amazing. We prayed, worshipped, proclaimed God’s word, and then not one person bolted for the door at the end. We sat around the table and ate with one another and shared life with one another.” That was, "back to the roots”, first century church being lived out in the 21st century.

And there was something we shared that we can see in the life of the early church… If we go back to acts chapter 2, after being devoted to one another, the second thing we witness with the early christians, was that they had deeply rooted with joy. You see, when we rightly enjoy God, we can rightly enjoy being with one another. This is why Jesus says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Deeply rooted worship is us enjoying God while also enjoying being in the presence of others that God brings into our life.

So how can we make corporate worship more meaningful? Well, first, have the attitude of, I will attend worship. It’s actually that simple. It’s amazing how when we make worship a priority we’ll realize how much others will become a part of our family. And let us remember this, anything and everything will always be an excuse not to attend. I have a headache, I didn’t sleep well last night, I wasn’t feeling well.

I can tell you how many times I’ve gone to work not feeling well, or when I didnt get a lot of sleep, or some other issue. Why is my devotion to going to work, out weigh my devotion for coming to church? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to work with headaches, or being sick, or made no excuse to be there. We do that because we know we chant live the life we want without getting paid.

What if we took that principle and realized that we’re missing out on spiritual life? Many people are coming to church whenever they feel like it and wondering why their with is lacking. Make it a priority. I challenge you to see what happens when you make church worship a priority. See what happens when you make a firm commitment to be in church and watch what God does to your heart when you actually pursue to love him, and you actually pursue to love others.

Secondly, have the attitude of, I will pray before I attend worship service. Sometimes I will pray when I go to bed. Lord, I hope we together worship you rightly. Pray as you drive into church, “Lord, I pray that we sense your presence. Don’t let us gather and not meet you in some way.” Right? If you went to Hershey chocolate world and they didnt have chocolate would you go back?

I mean the whole point of going to Hershey chocolate world is to eat chocolate. Why would we even think about showing up to church without praying in your heart and asking and yearning for God’s presence to fill this room and people witnessing the manifest presence of God. Thirdly, I will pray as I enter the sanctuary. I want to pray for my own heart and attitude as I come to join with other people.

I’m gonna pray for others, and engage with others. When I hear a brother or sister say, Pray for me… I wont say, I will pray for you, but rather I will respond with, let’s pray now. I yearn to see prayer all over the sanctuary when I walk in. I’d love to show up to church and see pockets of people praying for one another, praying for the service, praying for our church and community.

This is supposed to be a house of prayer. Pray for the distractions to be removed. What’s distracting me from praying and being in worship. Dr. Manly said, how different would church be if the people would pray the Scripture as they sat at the feet of the pastor, hanging on to every word that God has laid on their heart. And lastly, I will pray that I will be a worshipper instead of a judge.

Too many times we leave corporate worship as if we just judged an olympic sport. The pastor went over, and he spoke about a sin that I am dealing with. So he gets a 4. The worship was ok, they sung well, but I was hoping for this song instead of that one. They get a 7. We look around the room and we see kids and other people checked out and on their cell phones, so we give them a 3, especially those people over there because they didn’t shake my hand before service.

Oh, and those people get a 1 because they sat in my seat. When we come in here with judgmental perceptions of worship, we’re not worshipping God. Instead we’re seeking church to be a place of entertainment. And entertainment is only designed to make me feel good. Not change my heart. That’s our challenge this week. Realize that we are a family. It’s time to ask God to get our hearts right so we desire to rightly worship him in this place.

It’s time to urge one another to make priority in coming and worshipping with us. Will you join me in this? Will you join me in changing from: I could or I might or I can or I should Would you change your attitude today, to, “I will” be a person of worship? *

Jesus as Lamb - Week 1

I want to invite you to open your bibles with me, to John chapter 15. Rememberer church, this is such a promising and privilege thing we get to do together. For me, its like the first church, as they would gather together in joy and anticipation to hear someone read the letters that the apostles would send… and here we are, 2000 years later, able to gather together, around the same word, leaning in and listening with anticipating hearts the word of God. Such a blessing, such a privilege we have.. And lets be honest, sometimes the only time we open the Bible all week is at this moment. So, lets make this moment special. I want us together, to look at verse 13 in chapter 15, but let's start reading in verse 9 to get the full context of what Jesus is saying here. John 15:9-13 says, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.”

Last week we wrapped up our series on "Defining the Relationship," and we talked about this universal human experience of loneliness—that feeling of separation that somehow finds its way to each of us. And If you remember, pretty much every hand in this room went up when I asked who's experienced loneliness at some point in their life. Every single hand. And we discovered together that when we feel separated from God and from others, what we're really dealing with is a heart issue. But here's what I'm learning, and what I want us to explore together as we begin this new series on "Sacrifice": those painful feelings of separation, that broken heart that sings the wrong song—it's all pointing to something deeper. It's pointing to a sin problem that's been with humanity since the garden. Look at Genesis 3:8: "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” Did you recognize what happened there? Sin entered their lives, and immediately, what was their response? They hid. They separated themselves from God. It's a pattern as old as humanity itself: Choice leads to sin. Sin leads to shame. Shame leads to hiding. And if we're honest with ourselves, we still do this today, don't we? We rebel against God in a million different ways. Some of us through self-indulgence. We just live however we want, according to our own rules. We delight in doing whatever feels good in the moment. This is the irreligious path. Or in other words, the unbelieving path. This phrase is what keeps me up at night sometimes… have you ever thought about your life before Christ? Like, how selfish I lived with an unbelieving heart. My life has never been the same since Christ, opened my eyes to his love. And then, there's another way—and this is equally sinful, maybe even more dangerous—we rebel through self-righteousness. These are the religious people. These are the people I struggled caring for as a young unbeliever. These are the people that try to do whatever God wants, but all for the wrong reasons. They strive to be good by keeping all the rules. Many people fall into this category, living their entire lives assuming that if they just live morally enough, then God will bless them and save them. For decades we've misunderstood holiness. We've reduced it to external conformity rather than internal affection. True holiness isn't about what we avoid but Who we adore. It's not a matter of staying away from certain behaviors but being so captivated by the glory of God that sin loses its appeal. The problem with rule-based holiness is not that it asks too much of us, but that it asks far too little. It offers us the pale satisfaction of moral superiority instead of the infinite delight of knowing God.

And hear me out on this… I want us to be authentic. I truly do… but real authenticity doesn't wear masks that hide our true nature and issues. True authenticity starts with being honest about our brokenness before God. True authenticity isn't just saying whatever you feel or doing whatever you want. It's having the courage to come before God with your whole heart - the good, the bad, the ugly - and saying, "Lord, I need You to change me from the inside out.” There's a generation rising up that's done with religious games. They've grown up in a world where everything is filtered, edited, and carefully curated - and they can smell inauthenticity from a mile away. When they look at our churches, they're asking the real question: 'Has Jesus actually changed who these people are? Or is this just their Sunday mask?' They don't care about our light shows or our cool buildings. They want to see people whose lives have been wrecked by an encounter with the living God. And honestly? They're right! They're just echoing what God has been saying since the beginning: 'Give me your heart, not just your behavior.' The world doesn't need more religious people - it needs people who've been with the Lamb. And you know what? I think they're right to want that…….. I think they're echoing what God has been saying all along - that He's after our hearts, not just our behavior.

What does that look like in real life? It's a fair question, isn’t it? Because it's one thing to talk about heart transformation in church on Sunday, but what does it actually look like on Monday morning? What does it look like in your home, in your workplace, in your relationships? I think it looks like humility. It's being quick to say "I'm sorry" and "I was wrong" - not because you're weak, but because you're secure enough in God's love to admit when you mess up. It looks like authenticity in your struggles. Not parading your sin, but also not pretending you have it all together. It's being able to say to a trusted friend, "I'm really battling with this right now, and I need prayer.”\I see this happening in our home churches… I'm so proud of these leaders and people, struggling together, praying together, yearning together… It looks like compassion that reaches beyond your comfort zone. Seeing people the way Jesus sees them - not as projects or problems, but as precious souls worth sacrificing for. This kind of heart transformation doesn't happen overnight. It's not a microwave process; it's more like a slow cooker. Day by day, moment by moment, as we stay connected to Jesus - the Lamb who gave everything for us - His life begins to flow through us, and we find ourselves singing a new song.

Let's go back to the beginning to understand this better. Remember Adam and Eve in the garden? After they sinned, what was their first instinct? Genesis 3:7 tells us, "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." They tried to fix their own problem. They tried to hide their shame with their own solution. Listen church, Fig leaves can never cover what the blood can cleanse. But God knew better. They wouldn't truly cover the deep problem of sin. So what did God do? Genesis 3:21 says, "The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” This was the first sacrifice mentioned in the Bible, and because of sin, something had to die, gave its blood to provide atonement. They hid, in shame, and tried to fix the problem before God showed up. The first sacrifice. The first picture of what it would take to deal with our sin, didn’t happen until God showed up. Have you ever thought about that? That right from the very beginning, God was showing us that our self-made solutions wouldn't work? That our attempts to cover our own sin and shame would always fall short? That something innocent would have to die in our place? And notice who did the sacrificing - "The LORD God" made the garments. God Himself provided the sacrifice. Adam and Eve didn't think of it. They didn't go hunting. They didn't create the solution. God did. From the very start, salvation has always been God's initiative, not our own. And This pattern continues throughout Scripture. When Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac, who provided the ram caught in the thicket? God did. When the Israelites needed protection from death in Egypt, who designed the Passover system? God did. And when humanity needed permanent redemption from sin, who sent His only Son? God did. The story has always been about God's provision, not our performance. About His sacrifice, not our self-effort. But over time, what happened? These sacrifices became routine. Religious routine. Just going through the motions. In Isaiah 1:11, God says, "The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me? I have had enough of burnt offerings... I do not delight in the blood of bulls and lambs." In Amos 5:23, He says, "Away with the noise of your songs!” Can you imagine how heartbreaking this must have been for God? To see the very system He put in place to draw people to Him become a barrier instead? To watch as people focused on the ritual rather than the relationship? It's like a husband who buys flowers for his wife every Friday. At first, it's a beautiful expression of love. But over time, it becomes routine. He picks them up at the grocery store without thinking, tosses them on the counter when he gets home, and checks "flowers" off his mental list. The gesture remains, but the heart behind it has gone. That's what happened with Israel's sacrificial system. The outward actions continued, but the hearts grew distant. The songs were sung, but they became noise to God because they weren't coming from hearts that truly loved Him. I wonder how often we fall into the same pattern. Going to church. Reading our Bibles. Praying before meals. All good things! But if they become just religious boxes to check, we're missing the whole point. We're offering God our fig leaves instead of accepting His sacrifice. This is why Jesus had to come. This is why God sent His Son. Because despite all the sacrifices, all the religious rituals, all the attempts to bridge the gap between humanity and God - we were still separated. Still lost. Still singing the wrong song within our hearts. John 1:29 tells us that when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him, he declared, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" Not just another sacrifice in an endless system. Not just a temporary covering. But the One who would take away sin once and for all. And You see, every other lamb had a flaw. Every other sacrifice was incomplete. But Jesus was perfect. Hebrews 4:15 tells is that He was "tempted in every way, just as we are—yet He did not sin." The spotless Lamb. The perfect sacrifice. Who knew no sin, and understood our struggles. No other lamb in this world could do that… And unlike all those animals who had no choice in being sacrificed, Jesus willingly laid down His life. John 10:18, Jesus says, "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." Think back to our original Scripture on sacrifice, Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.”

Like, how powerful that is! "Don't miss how radical this is! The Lamb - Jesus - wasn't forced into being our sacrifice. He CHOSE it. He looked at you - yes, YOU - and said, 'I'm going to die for this person.' Sometimes I just have to stop and let that sink in. The God who could speak galaxies into existence decided you were worth dying for. Not because you're so amazing or because you've earned it, but because His love for you is that fierce. And that kind of sacrificial love doesn't just forgive you - it transforms you from the inside out. It's not just a historical event - it's the living Spirit of God taking up residence in your life!" This isn't some distant historical event. This is personal. This is the creator of the universe saying your name, knowing your struggles, seeing your shame, and still choosing to step into your place. And the miracle doesn't end at the cross. It doesn't even end at the empty tomb. The miracle continues every day as Christ lives in us through His Spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:19 reminds us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead now lives in you! That's why we can sing a new song. That's why our lives can reflect a different melody than the world around us. That's why, even in our darkest moments, there's a hope that doesn't make sense to those who don't know Him. The Lamb has come. The sacrifice has been made. And now, His life in us changes everything. The old song of shame and religious performance is replaced by a new song of freedom and joy - a song that will continue into eternity. How do I know… well, Look with me to the Revelation 5. This is where we get a glimpse into heaven, into eternity, and we see what worship looks like when we're finally face to face with the Lamb. Revelation 5:9-10 says, "And they sang a new song, saying: 'You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.’” Like, right now, there are people from everywhere... worshipping the lamb. They are singing, and adoring, and burning with affection... no more tears, no more worries, no more wondering, no more faith.... Because For them... their faith is now complete in the one who its worthy. … Can you picture that scene with me for a moment? Just imagine it. People from every background, every language, every culture - all gathered around the throne. No more divisions. No more barriers. Just pure worship flowing from hearts that have been completely transformed, and belting out with full throated confidence, you … are worthy… the lamb. That was slain.. you are worthy… And what are they focused on? Not themselves. Not their accomplishments. Not their religious performance. Not whats going on tomorrow…. They’re focused entirely on the Lamb who was slain. Their hearts are overflowing with gratitude and love because they can see clearly now what Jesus did for them. And here's what I find so beautiful - that same song is available to us right now. It is… its being offered right now… the only issue, perhaps… does your heart may recognize it. Its true.. in your pain.. In your struggles. In your self doubt.. in your hardships and breakups and mental anguish… the song is still available here to us…… I can show you this truth…I really can… all throughout the Bible it tells us, in our salvation, in our iniquity…. God gives us a new song in our salvation. Remember last week, in Psalm 40.. “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry, He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand” We talked about meeting God in the solitude and waiting for him… remember. God is there in the midst of your pain and struggle…But what happened to David when God met him in the pit? He rescued him… right… he set his feet on solid ground… on a foundation that can not be moved… and gave him a place to stand… But watch what happens in verse 3… “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.” This is no small thing! This new song isn't just different lyrics to the same old melody of the world. It's an entirely new composition, written by God Himself and placed within us. This song doesn't merely change what we sing; it changes what we love. It reorients the deepest affections of our heart. And the greatest beauty of this song is its Object - not self, not sin, not even our salvation primarily, but God Himself in all His infinite worth and beauty. And notice the effect this song had - "Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him." When God gives us a new song, it's not just for us. It's for others to hear. It's a testimony. It's evidence that God is still in the business of rescue and redemption. This new song isn't just personal—it's contagious." When people look at your life and mine, do they see something different? Do they hear a different song playing than what the world offers? When we've truly encountered the Lamb - when we've received His sacrifice for us, when we've surrendered to Him and he lives in us - our lives should sing a melody that makes others curious. Not because we're perfect. Not because we have it all figured out. But because even in our struggles, even in our questions, we have a hope and a joy that doesn't make sense without God. David looked forward to God's salvation, while we look back to it in the Lamb who was slain, and we both look up to the throne where the lamb sits, who's worthy to be praised. That my friends... is the song that echoes through eternity. That's the melody that transcends our circumstances. That's the chorus that unites believers across all time. When the Lamb becomes our sacrifice, His song becomes our story. Our lives begin to sing a tune of grace instead of guilt, of freedom instead of fear, of purpose instead of performance.

As Peter comes up….

I want to tell you a dream and desire God has placed in my heart for this church… I dream that we would become a community of people singing together, and to one another, and to others, the Lamb is worthy… "It's possible... I truly believe it's possible! And you want to know what it looks like when it happens? Look at Ephesians 5:15. And see what Paul says about a community that is transformed by the Spirit." 15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, Here it is.. what does it mean that a church is Spirit filled? 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see what Paul is saying here? When the Spirit fills a community, they start singing to each other! Not just to God, though that's essential, but to one another. They encourage each other with songs from the Spirit. This new song.. bursts from the hearts of the people, and "Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.” Because of it… This isn't just about what happens on Sunday morning when we gather. This is about what happens on Tuesday afternoon when you're struggling. And Wednesday nights when we gather for house church. It's about what happens on Thursday evening when your neighbor needs hope. An d Friday nights when we set up the church… It's about a community coming together which reminds each other through their words, their actions, their very lives - and the new song on their heart… that the Lamb is worthy.

So what does this mean for you today? What choice is before you? I believe God is asking each of us a simple question: "What song are you singing?” Are you still singing the old song of self-effort? Still trying to clean yourself up? Still hiding behind fig leaves of religious performance? Or are you singing the old song of the world? The "you do you" anthem that sounds good but leads to emptiness? So I plead with you today - don't settle for the shallow melodies this world offers. Don't be content with the self-centered tunes of religious performance. There is a song of infinite beauty and eternal joy available to you right now. A song that will satisfy your soul like nothing else can. A song that makes much of Christ and little of self. A song that will endure when all other music has faded into silence. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! "This isn't about singing prettier songs on Sunday. This is about surrendering everything to the One who gave everything for you. It's about saying, 'Jesus, I'm done trying to be my own savior. I'm done with religious games. Take my heart. Change my song.' Maybe you've never truly encountered the Lamb. Maybe you've known Him but slipped back into going through motions. Listen - wherever you are today, the invitation stands: Look to the Lamb. Receive His sacrifice. Let Him write a new song through your life that will echo into eternity." And remember, "When the Lamb becomes our sacrifice, His song becomes our story.” *

What is Your Legacy?

I want to invite you to open your bibles back to Luke chapter 5. This is the fourth message in our series called, into the deep. We’ve been walking through this incredible moment between Jesus and Simon Peter, watching how an ordinary fishing trip turns into an extraordinary calling. In week one, we asked, “Can He use your boat?”—and we talked about what it means to make ourselves available to Jesus. In week two, we looked at Jesus’ invitation to go deeper, and we asked, “Will you go?”—recognizing that deep faith means trusting Him beyond the shallows of comfort. In week three, we wrestled with the tension between our way and God’s way, learning that obedience to Jesus will often challenge our logic and stretch our surrender. And now, here we are—at a turning point. Today we’re asking a question that I believe will shape how we live, how we give, and how we leave a mark in this world: What’s your legacy? What kind of life are you building? And I want to ask you one more question to get us started today—something that gets personal really quickly. If I handed you a piece of paper and asked you to answer this: “How do you make disciples?”—what would you write? What does that actually look like in your life? Or maybe, honestly, you’d say, “I don’t know if I’ve ever made a disciple.” If that’s you—let me just offer a word of encouragement: You are not disqualified. You’re not behind. But you are called. Jesus commanded every single one of His followers to go and make disciples. This isn’t optional. It’s not just for pastors or missionaries. This command is for every Christian, in every nation, in every generation.

This past week, our staff and board gathered together for a retreat at Glen Eyrie, and we prayed and worshiped and sat with the Lord together. And as we listened for His voice, it was like the presence of God settled on us like a fog—thick, gentle, and unmistakable. And as we talked, we asked a deeper question: Who are we? How do we be a church that honors our Nazarene heritage, but also obeys the unique calling God has for us here in Falcon? And what began to rise to the surface—over and over again—was this: we must be a church that makes disciples. Not just attenders. Not just consumers. Disciples. And I can’t help but to ask this piercing question… how are you being discipled to go and make disciples? How does that look for you as a fellowship member? Or as a full member of a church? Because here’s the truth—we don’t want to get to the end of our lives and realize we missed the one thing Jesus explicitly told us to do. Think about it. If the only purpose of salvation was to know Him, He could’ve taken you to heaven the moment you believed. But He left you here. He left me here. Why? In a world full of injustice and pain and brokenness… what’s the point? The point is this: He gave us a mission. And that mission is to make disciples. So how do we do that? What does it look like? To answer that, we’re going to start in Luke chapter 5—where we see the beginning of Peter’s calling. And then we’ll turn to Matthew 28 to see the continuation of that same call—the call that belongs to every follower of Jesus. Let’s read all of Luke 5, verse 1-11:

So did we witness as the beginning of discipleship for Peter. Well first we see, Availability. Let’s look again at Luke 5:3: “He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.” (Luke 5:3, NIV) Now I want you to notice something really simple but incredibly powerful: Jesus got into Peter’s boat. Peter didn’t go searching for Jesus—Jesus came looking for him. And Peter’s response? He let Him in. He made his boat available. Can I just say something to you this morning? Before God ever calls you to do something great, He’s going to ask you to give Him something ordinary. Something simple. Something that you already have. It might be your time. Your talents. Your resources. Your kitchen table. Your willingness to listen. Whatever it is—Jesus will start with what’s already in your hands. Think about it: Peter’s boat wasn’t a temple. It wasn’t a church building. It was his workplace. It was messy, smelly, and probably still had fish guts on the floorboards. But that’s what Jesus chose to step into. So, Here’s the truth: Jesus doesn’t wait for your life to be spotless before He uses it. He just wants you to open the door. Romans 12:1, of course is one of my favorite verses for God asking for what’s in our hands. (NLT) says: “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him.” I always think the message version teaches us this in easier understanding.. it says, (MSG) So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. You don’t need to be spectacular. You just need to be surrendered. That’s worship. Worship is availability. Let’s be honest—we live in a culture that praises busyness. If your calendar isn’t packed, people assume you’re unimportant. But what if God’s greatest invitation this week isn’t to add something big, but to be available for something small? Like helping your neighbor carry groceries. Or mentoring a teenager. Or inviting a co-worker to coffee just to check in. A few weeks ago, I was at Glen Eryie on a Monday, and I was sitting there, and these older couple pulled up and they were unloading their car to their meeting room. And I notices that they were.. well struggling. So, I got up, and asked, can I help? And of course, they said yes. What does it take for you to just see someone coming into a door, and just wait or slow down for a moment to hold the door for someone. What does it take to just walk pass someone in the grocer store and say, hey, I love your blouse, or shoes or hey, keep smiling, your smile made my day. If God can use a fishing boat, He can use your life. Availability is the very beginning of every spiritual legacy. Listen, Church, God doesn’t need your ability. He’s already got plenty of that. What He’s looking for is availability. Let’s keep going in the story. Luke 5:4–5 says: “When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.’ Simon answered, ‘Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.’” The is obedience: Now this is where it gets real. Jesus tells Peter to do something that makes absolutely no sense. Peter’s a professional fisherman. He knows the water. He’s already put in a full shift—he’s tired, discouraged, and probably just wants to go home and rest. But instead, he obeys. Think of what Isaiah says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. How many times does God ask us to do something that doesn’t make sense? Isn’t it hard to understand God sometimes? Forgive someone who hurt you… even though they didn’t say sorry. Tithe when your finances already feel tight. Share your faith when you're scared of being rejected. Stay in a hard relationship or step out into a new ministry when the outcome is unclear. Most of us want to understand first and then obey. We want to see how it all works out before we say yes. Its true isn it… What about our desperate prayers. God, help me, then I will do. Help me get through this moment, and I promise I will tithe, or go to church, or be a better christian. But that’s not how God works. God says, “Trust Me first. Obey Me now. And understanding will come later.” Why? Because obedience is always a test of faith. When you obey even when you don’t understand, you're saying, “God, I trust You more than I trust myself.” You're saying, “Your ways are higher than my ways. Your thoughts are better than mine.” That’s faith in action. Faith is believing what you can’t see. Obedience is doing what God says even when it doesn’t make sense. So here’s the big question: Where does the joy come in? How do we get from obedience to joyful obedience? Because let’s be honest, sometimes obedience feels hard, sometimes it costs us something. Sometimes it’s painful. So where does the joy come in? The answer is simple: Joy comes when you remember who you’re obeying. You’re not obeying a distant God. You’re obeying a loving Father. The God who made you. The God who sees the big picture. The God who is always working for your good. That changes everything. Suddenly obedience isn’t a burden—it’s a blessing. It’s not just about doing the right thing; it’s about walking closely with the One who knows what’s best for you. And here’s what I’ve found over and over again—joy always follows obedience. Not always immediately, but eventually. You obey in faith, and somewhere along the way, joy sneaks in. Peace shows up. You look back and realize, “Wow… God really did know what He was doing.” Obedience positions you to see His hand, experience His faithfulness, and live in His blessing. Luke wild later write these words of Jesus…., “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and obey it” (Luke 11:28). Blessed. Joyful. Fulfilled. That’s the fruit of faith-filled obedience. I think of Peter and Pua. Peter stepped out, by faith. He had a heart, or a nudge to take the picture of Pua’s resume and then send me a text to say, I think I may have found someone that would fit in perfectly with the church. Now, his family is a major part of our church family. So, Here’s the deal: Delayed obedience is disobedience. And partial obedience is still disobedience. But when we obey—even when we’re unsure, even when it feels like the deep waters—God meets us there. That’s where the miracle happens. listen, God doesn’t require you to understand fully. He just asks you to obey faithfully.

Lets look again to the next part. Because if you think obedience is hard, this next part is even harder. Look with me in verse 8: “When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!’” Now remember, Peter just saw the biggest catch of fish he’d ever experienced. This was a moment of breakthrough. But instead of celebrating, he hits the ground in brokenness. Why? Because when you come face to face with the power and purity of Jesus, you also come face to face with the mess in your own heart. Have you ever noticed in your faith, that God’s goodness has a way of exposing our need. When I think of this part of Peter’s story, I’m struck by what he didn’t do. It would’ve been so easy for Peter to be mesmerized by the catch. He could’ve said, “Wow, this is it! Let’s haul these fish in, get them to market, and cash in. We’re set for life! Look at what this man just did for us—I can finally live in comfort.” That’s how most of us would think, right? In our flesh, we default to self—self-focus, self-gain, self-security. But Peter didn’t do that. In that moment, he fell to his knees. He confessed. Why? Because God’s goodness has a way of exposing our deepest need. The Bible shows us this over and over again. Think of Isaiah’s vision of God’s glory in Isaiah 6:5. The moment he sees the Lord high and lifted up, what does he say? “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” Isaiah sees God’s holiness, and suddenly his own sin is undeniable. Or think of Paul in Romans 2:4 where he writes, “Don’t you see that the kindness of God is meant to lead you to repentance?” God’s kindness, His mercy, His goodness—they aren’t just meant to bless us. They are meant to break us, to wake us up, to lead us back to Him. Peter’s response on that boat was the same as Isaiah’s and Paul’s. When he saw the power of Jesus, he saw his own heart. And I wonder—when’s the last time God’s goodness stopped you in your tracks? When’s the last time you looked past the blessing to see the One who gave it? Because your greatest need has never been a bigger catch. It’s always been Jesus. Always. And can I tell you something important? That’s not a bad place to be. That moment when the weight of your sin hits you… that’s not condemnation. That’s invitation. That’s Jesus saying, “Now that you see your need, let me show you my grace.” 1 John 1:9 (NIV) says: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Notice the promise: Confession leads to cleansing. Honesty opens the door to healing.Maybe you’ve had one of those moments—where you’re in worship, or you’re praying, or reading your Bible—and all of a sudden, the conviction sets in. You realize, “God, I’ve been pretending. I’ve been going through the motions. I’ve been holding back.” That’s not God trying to shame you. That’s His Spirit trying to free you. You can’t be filled until you’re emptied. You can’t be commissioned until you’ve been cleansed. Peter said, “Go away from me, Lord. I’m a sinful man.” But Jesus didn’t walk away. He leaned in. Because that’s what Jesus does when you confess—He doesn’t cancel you. He calls you. Listen Church, Jesus isn’t looking for perfect people. He’s looking for honest ones. And confession is where true discipleship begins.

Now, look at what happens after the confession, Luke 5:10–11: “Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.’ So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.” I love this moment. Because Jesus doesn’t end the story with Peter’s confession—He gives him a commission. Jesus says, “You were a fisherman… but from now on, you’re going to catch people.” That phrase—“from now on”—signals a new identity, a new direction, a new legacy. Peter’s life just changed forever. How many times have you confessed and went right back into your old life? Be honest. We all have done it. There had been moments where our hearts were warmed by the very presence of Christ, we confessed our sin, and …. Well just fell back into our old life again. Its a struggle, I get it. And I also get Peter could have fallen to his knees in confession and then when Jesus says get up, he could have went right back to cleaning his nets. But he didn’t… he followed Jesus. And notice—Jesus doesn’t say, “Go get your act together first.” He says, “Let’s go. Right now.” Because when Jesus calls you, He also equips you. Ephesians 2:10 (NIV) says: For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” DO you realize what this is saying… you’re new life, in Jesus. Through availability, obedience, and confession is saying this… you are God’s poem. Thats the greek word for handiwork in Ephesians. It means you’ve bene made new and crafted for purpose and with purpose. It means you’re not random. You’re not accidental. You’re not mass-produced. You were intentionally created by God. Designed. Shaped. Formed by His hands for a reason. You’re not junk. You’re not a mistake. You are God’s work of art and a living poem. You’re life is being created in Jesus Christ to do good works. Do you hear that? You weren’t just saved from something. You were saved for something. Some of you think God could never use you because of your past. But can I remind you? Peter was impulsive. He denied Jesus three times. He sank in the water. And yet—Jesus used him to preach at Pentecost and lead the early church. Why? Because Jesus doesn’t call the qualified. He qualifies the called. This is what happens when we say yes to the call: we leave behind what’s temporary so we can step into what’s eternal. Peter left his boats, his nets, and his biggest catch ever—not because he was reckless, but because he had found something better. He had found a purpose worth living for. And more than that—a Savior worth following. As a pastor friend of mine would put it, If you ain't fishing, you ain't following. That’ll preach.

So what does this all have to do with the question: What is your legacy? It’s this—what began in Luke 5 with Peter’s calling is fulfilled in Matthew 28 with our commission. That day by the lake wasn’t just Peter’s moment; it was the beginning of a pattern. Jesus calls. We respond. And then He sends us. He doesn’t just save us from something—He saves us for something. And that something is this: Go and make disciples. You see, we are a part of Peters legacy. That began with Jesus. That began at the first words in Genesis. In the beginning was God. We a re a part of the story of God. I siad this at our retreat. At Falcon community chgruhc, I want you to envision this… all kinds of people here, from many nations, or ethiciityies, and cultures, and here God is making this beautiful tapestry of different lives, from different places, and different generations, all in one place, while weaving the gospel message us to share with others. And if we’re going to take that command seriously, we need to pay attention to the four core actions Jesus gives us in these final verses. They’re not optional. They’re not suggestions. They are the very legacy we are meant to live and leave behind. First, we are called to Share the Word. Jesus says, “Go…” That’s movement. That’s mission. That’s a refusal to stay in comfort or convenience while the world lives and dies without the gospel. This is not a call just for missionaries or pastors—it’s for every single follower of Christ. Share the Word. Tell people the story of what He’s done in you. Evangelism is not a personality type. It’s obedience. And it starts with the people already around you. Who has God placed in your life right now who needs to hear the good news? You don’t need a platform—you just need to open your mouth and trust that the power is in the message, not the messenger.

Second, we are called to Show the Word. Jesus said to baptize them. Baptism isn’t just a ritual; it’s a declaration. A public statement that someone’s old life is gone and their new life is in Christ. But it doesn’t stop at the water. We show the Word by modeling what it means to follow Jesus daily. You don’t have to be perfect—you just need to be real. Invite someone into your rhythms. Show them how you study the Bible. Let them hear you pray. Let them see what it looks like to walk with Jesus when you’re tired, when you’re tempted, when you’re full of joy, and when you’re in pain. Discipleship is not about information—it’s about imitation. Paul said, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” That’s our role, too.

Third, we are called to Teach the Word. Jesus said, “Teach them to obey everything I’ve commanded.” Notice—He didn’t say teach them to know everything. He said to obey. That’s a big difference. Obedience is the goal of discipleship, not just knowledge. So we don’t teach for entertainment or applause—we teach for transformation. And this can happen over coffee, at the dinner table, or in a text thread. It’s teaching truth through relationship. And it only happens when the Word of God isn’t just something we hear—it’s something we live.

And finally, we are called to Serve the World. Jesus said, “Make disciples of all nations.” That’s not poetic language. That’s International strategy. There are still over 3 billion people who haven’t heard the name of Jesus. And while not all of us are called to go overseas, we are all called to care. To pray. To give. To be open to the possibility that God might send us somewhere beyond what we expected. Because the Great Commission is not just about your neighborhood—it’s about the nations. We are not just a local church—we are a global church, part of God’s unstoppable movement to bring the gospel to every tribe, tongue, and nation. That’s the legacy. Not success. Not status. Not safety. Disciples. That’s what we leave behind. That’s what we live for. And here’s the promise: “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” When you open your mouth to share the Word, He is with you. When you walk with someone through the ups and downs of discipleship, He is with you. When you teach truth, and when you serve beyond your comfort zone—He is with you. His presence is the power behind your obedience. So let me ask you one last time: What legacy are you living for? Are you building something that will last only for this life? Or are you pouring your life into people who will carry the gospel into eternity? Let’s be a church that doesn’t just attend services but makes disciples. Let’s build a legacy not of comfort, but of calling. *

Hosea and Faithful Love - Vintage Jesus

Lets open our bibles together to Hosea chapter 1… We're doing something incredible this year - for 52 weeks, we're keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus. That's it. No distractions, no side topics. Just Jesus. We want to see Him, hear Him, love Him, and live Him. Right now, we're in week 3 of our first series called 'Vintage Jesus.' And speaking of vintage... I want to show you something. Yesterday, while praying over this message, God brought something to mind that I think will help us understand what we're going to explore today… I love this memory. Yesterday while praying through Jeremiah, three things became crystal clear… "Not for disaster" "Look for me" "I will be found by you” And as I read those words, this memory of playing hide and seek with my kids just filled my heart. You know the scene - little feet scampering across hardwood floors, trying to find the perfect hiding spot. Then that moment when you call out "Here I come, ready or not!” And those giggles. They always give themselves away. But here's what struck me - in those pure childhood moments, before life teaches us otherwise, our hearts respond exactly as God created them. Not to win, but to be found and loved. Young children love being found.. its not till we get older that we make it harder to be found. and so, I got to thinking yesteryda… Maybe hide and seek was never meant to be won. Maybe it was always about bringing us together.

And that's what we're going to discover today as we continue our Vintage Jesus series... Here's what we're doing in Vintage Jesus - we're digging into the Old Testament, finding these amazing seeds that point straight to Jesus. Because here's the thing - to miss Jesus in the Old Testament is to miss that He's always been there. Always. Yeah, we just celebrated His birth at Christmas, but He didn't start existing then. Quick recap - Week 1, we saw Jesus as Creator. Week 2, we met Him as Redeemer. And today... today we're discovering Jesus as Faithful Love. And let me tell you, this one's going to change everything about how we see love. If you have your Bibles open, read with me in Hosea chapter 1, verse 2: "When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, 'Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.’" Now, picture this - 700 years before Jesus was born, God comes to Hosea with what has to be the strangest mission ever. It's like God's version of "Mission Impossible." "Your mission, should you choose to accept it... Go marry a promiscuous woman." Can you imaging that conversation?? God tells Moses through burning bush to go safe the captives from salvery and take them to the promise land… God tells Abraham to leave this place and go to a place where I will show you. But hosea? …………. I want you to marry a prostitute. Like, What? Who? I think I need some more time to pray this through, because theres nothing holy about that. I think I heard you say that you wanted me to marry a prostitute. are You sure..????? Yes Hosea. She is a prostitute and her name is Gomer. Now, its bad enough for a man of God to be Called to marry a woman of promiscuous backgrounds, but come on… Gomer. Why not someone who’s named like Mary, or Sarah, or even Eve. And I dunno about you, but Gomer is sort of an unfortunate name. Theres nothing about that name that sounds attractive. But guess what? Hosea actually does it. Can you imagine the gossip in town? The whispers at the local market? Did you hear about Hosea? The prophet? The man of GOd.. Yeah, he's getting marrying…and get this... to that prostitute. And you’ll never believe this… guess her name… “its GOMER! Oh she must be a train wreck. \ But here's what's incredible about this whole thing. God isn't just asking Hosea to make some crazy life decision. No - God is asking Hosea to live out a prophecy. Think about it - every painful moment, every whisper behind his back, every betrayal that's coming... it's all going to paint a picture. A living picture of how God feels about His people. Of how much He loves them - even when they run away. So they get married. And for a while, things seem... okay. They have three kids together. Life is happening. But then… One morning, Hosea wakes up, and she's gone. He searches the house. Checks the backyard. Goes up and down the street. Nothing. Just like that - what looked like a hard marriage that might've been working out - poof. Gone. Now Hosea's a single father with three kids. And if you've ever been a single parent, you know - those days are hard. Those nights are even harder. I can just picture Hosea sitting there at night, after the kids are finally asleep, thinking about this path God called him to. And you know the whispers around town aren't helping: "I knew it wouldn't work." "What was he thinking?

”But then... turn with me to chapter three. Look at what God says: "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” Now, hold on - what's with the raisin cakes? Seems like a weird detail, right? Is God suddenly against baked goods? No. Here’s what you need to know - in their culture, raisin cakes were like driving a Mercedes or having the latest iPhone. They were status symbols. Signs of wealth and prosperity. Look at Hosea 2:5. Listen to how Gomer talks: "My wool, my linen, my olive oil, my drink.” Then in verse 13, she's obsessed with jewelry and chasing after lovers who can give her these things. You hear that? MY wool. MY linen. MY stuff. She's completely forgotten who provided for her in the first place. Forgotten Hosea's faithful love. This isn't just about Hosea and Gomer anymore. This is a snapshot - a living picture - of how Israel was treating God. Of how we treat God. And God... God gets brutally honest about this. He calls it what it is - their wandering hearts, their loose love that chases after anything shiny instead of staying faithful to the One who truly provides. Does any of this sound familiar? How quickly do we forget who's really providing for us? How fast do we run after the next thing, the next relationship, the next status symbol... forgetting the faithful love that's been there all along?

And look what God says about this in chapter 4, verse 10: They will eat but not have enough; they will engage in prostitution but not flourish, because they have deserted the Lord to give themselves to prostitution; old wine and new wine take away their understanding. My people consult a wooden idol, and a diviner's rod speaks to them. A spirit of prostitution leads them astray; they are unfaithful to their God.”

Think about that - they're eating but never satisfied. They're chasing relationship after relationship but never flourishing. They're looking for answers in wooden idols and diviner's rods. Sound familiar? We might not have wooden idols, but don't we do the same thing? Looking for satisfaction in everything except the One who can truly satisfy us?

So, as you study the culture of Hosea’s time you see that the culture had established three primary positions toward love that would lead to their downfall. They had three broken views of love: Love could be purchased "If I need it, I'll buy it. It's right there." Like Gomer running to prostitution thinking she could buy what she needed. Love was all about self "It's about how I feel. My satisfaction. My needs." And I can tell you this - in every relationship where I've made it all about me? It's never worked out. Love equals stuff Having things. Getting things. Surrounding ourselves with things.

So what happens? God tells Hosea in chapter 3, verse 1: "Go show your love to your wife again.” Now, think about this. It's one thing to love someone who comes crawling back asking for forgiveness. But to go find them? To make the first move when they're the one who hurt you? To settle a debt you didn't create? That's hard, isn't it? Everything in us wants to say, "It's not my fault. I didn't leave. I stayed with the kids.” Let me tell you something I learned early in ministry - Do you know you can tell who’s more spiritual in an argument? Who's more like Christ during a disagreement? It's not the one who's right. It's the one who, in humility, makes the first move toward reconciliation. Its the person who sees value in having a relationship and makes every effort to reconcile it, wither they are right or wrong. That's what Jesus was all about. He was never wrong in any argument, but He was always the first one seeking reconciliation. And that's what God calls Hosea to do - "Go pursue her, again.” I call this radical love. Where God pursues us to redeem the relationship even when we're the ones who walked away chasing all these other loves that never truly loves us back. I’ll talk about that more here soon… but before I get there…

Look with me in Hosea 2:14: "Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her.”

Faithful Love is a love that never forces itself on others. Let's talk about that word "allure." This isn't like a fishing lure meant to trick. This is about offering a different way. A better way. Think about those two on the Emmaus road. They're walking away from Jerusalem, away from their community, away from everything. And Jesus? He just comes alongside them. Doesn't force. Doesn't reveal Himself. Just walks with them. Think about that - the risen Christ, who just defeated death, could have said, "Hey! It's me! You had two witnesses! You sent women and they came back saying I was not there, and they even met an angel, then you sent the ment, and they confessed I indeed was not there.. What’s wrong with you?" But instead... He just quietly and lovingly walks with them. He listens. He teaches. He pursued. But also… he never pushes them to see him. That's what we see God doing through Hosea. "I will allure her." Not trick her. Not force her. But show her something different, something better. And here's what's beautiful - God reaches out to hearts trapped in sin and shame, and He draws them to Himself with love. He simply asks, "Would you be willing to see my goodness? Would you be willing to consider that what I offer is better than whatever it is that you're chasing?” Hes saying that to you heart this morning… what is it that your chasing that is not of Christ?? HE wont force you to lay it down… That's radical love. That's faithful love. It never pushes... but by grace, it always freely receives

Secondly, , Radical Love never gives up. Throughout Hosea, we see this persevering love. Paul captures it perfectly in 1 Corinthians: "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” You know, I think about this in my own marriage. Alicia gave me permission to share this… Seven years into our marriage, we hit rock bottom. Divorce was on the horizon. What we discovered was that we were speaking completely different love languages. I'm the extrovert, touchy-feely type. She's more practical - shows love through doing and serving. Under the surface, there were broken places, selfish places. Things we'd hidden from each other. Our marriage was being pulled apart. But by God's grace, we sat down and made a decision. Not just for the kids. Not just because we loved each other. But because we both loved Jesus more. Listen - you can go to church for decades and still be spiritually immature. Do you know why? Because you're stuck in Hosea's culture's view of love: Trying to buy God's love through religious acts Making faith all about your satisfaction Measuring your spirituality by what you get Listne, The length of time you've known Jesus isn't what matters. It's the depth of your surrender to Him. In our marriage, Alicia and I had to learn this the hard way. We had to move beyond the surface stuff. Beyond what we could get from each other. We had to surrender to something deeper. Because just like in marriage, just like in faith - there's a world of difference between sitting in the pews for 30 years and actually letting Jesus transform your heart.

Can I go off on a. Rabbit trial for a moment… Let me ask you something - have you ever wondered why relationships take so much work? Why we put so much effort into building them in the church? Here's why: Relationships are meant for holiness. It’s true… You’ve heard "iron sharpens iron," right? That's not just about making each other better - it's about becoming more like Christ together. For instance, lets look at marriage - Alicia and I are hitting 20 years this May. But let me tell you something - that doesn't mean we've got it all figured out. We had to learn something huge: Our relationship isn't about making "me" happy, or her happy. Because if marriage is just about my happiness other than her happiness, love becomes selfish, not selfless. It’s the Same with church. If church is just about having things your way - the music you like, the service times you prefer - you've missed it. You've made it about you, not Jesus. True relationships aren't about preferences or comfort. They're about transformation. About becoming more like Christ together.

We need to break free from conditional love. We really do… Conditional love hinders the church. There's this phrase I'm learning to let go of - "if you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.” It sounds good on the surface, right? Sounds like partnership, like unity. But here's what's missing - unconditional love. Christ-centered, and relationship. When this mindset creeps into our hearts, love becomes a transaction. It becomes, "Look what I've done for you - now what are you going to do for me?” "I've served in this ministry for years…" "I've given so much time…" "When will someone recognize my effort?” That's not love - that's business. That's not relationship - that's bondage. Now listen… , this is my conviction. It might not be yours. But when I look at how Jesus loves us - how He loved through Hosea - there's no "scratch my back" in sight. There is only faithful unconditional love.

So where is Jesus in all of this.. Wheres the vintage part? Well, its rooted here in chapter three… remember God tells Hosea to go and show love to your wife again, because she has turned to other Gods and raisin cakes.. And Remember how Hosea finds Gomer.. she’s on the auction block? Look at what Hosea’s response was… in verse 2.. So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. 3 Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.” Picture this - she's standing there, covered in shame, and Hosea pays a price he didn't have to pay. She was already his wife. But he buys her back anyway. He paid a price he didn’t have to pay because she was already his… Then Hosea says something remarkable. Look at verse 5 This shows that Israel will go a long time without a king or prince, and without sacrifices, sacred pillars, priests,[f] or even idols! 5 But afterward the people will return and devote themselves to the Lord their God and to David’s descendant, their King. In the last days, they will tremble in awe of the Lord and of his goodness. Did you catch it? Hosea only mentions David because he doesn't know Jesus' name yet! He's seeing the Messiah, but the name "Jesus" hasn't been revealed. This is the vintage part - Jesus was always there: In Hosea paying the price In the prophecy of David's descendant In the promise that we'll tremble at His goodness And here's what's beautiful - Hosea says, in this last days, they will tremble in awe of the Lord and of his goodness… Thats prophecy…. Because, we’re living in those "last days" now. The only difference, is that we know His name. His name is Jeuss…We know He paid our price. And we can tremble in awe of His goodness today. ”You see for Hosea the name of the Messiah has yet to be revealed. Hosea sees the Messiah clearly. He knows from prophecy that the Messiah will come from the descendants of David. Do you know that JESUS would be born to a woman named Mary and father named Joseph who would come from the line of David? This is the Vintage part. For decades many of you have known of the story of Hosea and you have read it over and over again and in your reading you never even realized that Hosea only mentions the name of David because he didn’t yet know the name of Jesus. David is the messianic stand in.. There will come a day when the people of God will have a King. The word says in verse 5, In the last days, they will tremble in awe of the Lord and of his goodness (NLT).

N You know what's fascinating about Hosea? He wasn't living in the last days. He was living in a time when people were absolutely terrified of God's judgment. They were drinking in this contaminated version of love that just... wasn't filling them up. But here's what's wild - when are the last days? They're now. Right now. We're living in them. Let me explain what I mean by "last days." It's this time we're in right now - between Jesus's death, resurrection, and ascension... and when He comes back. And Hosea... he sees something coming. He prophesies that in these last days, people are going to come to know their true King. And who do we now know that King is? Jesus. Hosea says people will stand in awe of the Lord and His goodness. Say that with me: "His goodness!” You know what Paul writes in Romans? He says "The goodness of God leads us to repentance." [Romans 2:4] Now, look at these names in this story - they're not random: Hosea means "salvation" - Who's Hosea name pointing to? Jesus. Gomer means "completion" - Who's Gomer's name pointing to? That's us. This isn't just some ancient story - it's our story. We're Gomer - broken, running, incomplete, standing on that auction block, needing someone to pursue us again... and again... and again. And Jesus? He's our Hosea - pursuing us, redeeming us, completing us. The cross becomes our auction block, where He pays the ultimate price. Not with silver or gold, but with His own blood. Paul puts it this way in Romans 5:8: "But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” That's faithful love That’s radical love That's completing love And here's what takes my breath away - He won't stop. NO many how many ration cakes you go after… he doesn’t give up on you. Into the darkest corners, through the deepest valleys, to the farthest places we run... Jesus comes to find us, redeem’s us, and complete's us.

As Peter comes up… I want to end with this…

Do you know what changes everything? When I remember that I'm Gomer. When I remember that I was the one standing on that auction block. When I really get that in my heart - not just my head - it changes how I see everything. Has His goodness has led you to change? Not just behavior change, but heart change? You know, Peter knew something about this relentless love. And David... man, David got it too. Listen to what he writes in Psalm 139. He says: "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.” "Even if I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” Can I tell you something? Having godly parents won't do it. Being religious won't do it. Even believing in God - just believing - that won't do it either. We all have to get to that place. That place where we discover something deep in our souls - that God's goodness, that leads others repentance, His faithful love, that's what leads us to real change. That's what makes us turn around and come home. Is God speaking to your heart right now? Right in this moment? If He is... why wait. Respond.*

Jesus as Our Friend

I want to invite you to open your bibles with me to Matthew chapter 17. All month long we've been diving into this series called "Defining the Relationship," where we're looking at how people saw Jesus, like really saw him. And if you've been with us, you might have noticed we keep coming back to this one amazing story - the transfiguration of Jesus. It's perfect for what we're doing because here's what happens: Jesus takes a few of his closest friends up a mountain, and right there in front of them, he just... changes. It's like they're seeing the real Jesus for the first time. And since we're spending all of 2025 trying to see Jesus more clearly - what we're calling our 2025 vision - this story is exactly where we need to be. We've already uncovered some pretty cool things about Jesus in this story. A couple weeks ago, we talked about how God calls him his Son - that's huge, right? Jesus asked the disciples to define the relationship and Peter defined it. You are the Messiah, the son of God. The the Father confirmed it.. This is my son… Then last week we dug into those words "whom I love." Get this - Jesus isn't just God's Son, he's God's BELOVED Son. And we saw how Jesus both receives and gives this incredible, life-changing love of God. And because Christ is in us, we can receive and give this same love. Now, this is important because what we looked at last week on love goes right into this weeks message. This week… We're going to see something else - we're going to see Jesus as our Friend. Not just any friend, but the kind who speaks life into us, who wants the absolute best for us, and who believes in us even when we don't believe in ourselves.

But before we jump into what happens in Matthew 17, I need to tell you about something that happened to me in third grade. This is the story about…. The playground king. You know that school bully everybody seems to have a story about? Well, this was mine. It was a beautiful day at ShadyBrook Elementary, everyone was out at recess, and for whatever reason - I still don't know why - this kid and his little gang decided I was going to be their target that day. Now, if you grew up in the 80s, you know playground equipment back then was... let's say... interesting. Like, those metal slides on a hot summer day? Yeah, you weren't sliding down those things - you were leaving a layer of skin behind! Am I right? Kids these days and their safety slides. We went from 0 to 100 and left two skin marks as our clothes were burned off and our butt cheaks slid down the slide. We had these turtle-shaped climbing dome things with little triangles all over them. So there I am, getting chased by this kid and his friends, and I've got two choices - get caught and pounded, or surrender and... still get pounded. Great options, right? So I'm running, and I make it to the top of this turtle thing. They're jumping up, trying to grab my legs - I'm kicking, they're climbing, I'm shoving them back down, and then... WHAM! I turn left, and this fist just comes out of nowhere, right into my nose. Yeah, it broke. Blood everywhere. And yeah, I definitely cried. And… its still a little bit crooked today.. Life can be hard sometimes, can't it? Amen? You know what's crazy? Sometimes we don't even know who our real friends are. When you're a kid, it's simple - you just know who you want to hang out with and who you want to avoid. But now that we're adults, we get it. Some people just drain you, make you feel small, make you want to hide. And others? They light you up. They make you feel like you can do anything. Some folks just want to use you to feel better about themselves, while others genuinely want to see you succeed because they care about you. Keep that in mind as we dive into Matthew 17. Because what we're about to see? It's going to change how we think see Jesus as our friend… Turn with me to Matthew 17:1-7. 1 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. 4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” So right there, God the Father just confirmed and defined the relationship. What was the response? 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. I want to stop right there for a minute. Let that image sink in - these guys are face down on the ground, terrified. You know that feeling, right? That overwhelming moment when all you can do is hit the deck? That's where we find these guys. The Bible says they were terrified. Theres fear. And in their fear they cower. It’s a posture we know all to well - When we are scared, we tense up. Its our body’s way of preparing us for what we think might happen… which is usually we’re thinking, I'm going to be harmed in some way. If there was ever a moment for Jesus to be the playground king, it would be in this moment. This was a moment where Jesus could have put his foot on the back of the disciples and say, I’m king. Im the guy. I am the one God says is his son. But he doesn't do that. Not even close. And what he does instead? It changed these guys forever. You know how I know? Because these same guys who are eating dirt right now? They don't stay there. Take John, for instance. This same John, nicknamed one of the sons of thunder - the one who's currently face-down and shaking in his sandals - years later would write something incredible. Listen to what he writes, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” Did you catch that? The opposite of fear isn't courage - it's love. And that... that changes everything about how we see what God the Father says on this mountain: "This is my beloved Son, whom I love." Think about how that plays into Jesus going to the cross. That was a moment where, honestly, the human side of Jesus should have been shaking in his sandals too. But if there was ever a moment where we see John's words in action - that there is no fear in love - it's right there. Jesus faces the cross not because he's the bravest person who ever lived, it wasn’t courage that drove him to the cross, it was love….. The opposite of fear is love. There are so many expressions of fear… ...Afraid to talk to the girl, or that guy…. What about investing in the new venture. Alicia and our family had every right to be fearful of mombivng 1500 miles, but it was love that drew us here to apply for this adventure. How about the fear of having to kill the spider. Its amazes me… the spider does nothing to me. Doesn’t show aggression like a dog or cat can, isn’t the biggest, but yet, it paralyzes us in fear. And then theres the fear of heights. DO You know what I realized about fear? When you really dig down to the core of it - when you get past all the surface stuff - fear is really just us trying to protect ourselves. Thats it! Thats at the center of our fear.. our own self preservation. And I think about this in my life, and I wonder, if fear just only drives my natural desire to be comfortable, and to never step out by faith, or to never give myself wholly to someone else, whether it be to my wife, or to my kids or to the mission God has on my life,… or even bigger yet, if fear never lets me give my whole self to Jesus.. how will I evert be made into the image of Christ, to be holy as he is holy, and to love others as myself. I can't love Him and others, while only thinking of my own self. Fear causes us to turn from one another, but love Turns us towards one another, and makes us one. Its a real issue church….. We’re afraid of getting hurt. Afraid of failing. Afraid of looking foolish. I mean, who here hasn't stayed quiet in a meeting because you were afraid your idea might sound dumb? But here's what's fascinating. John - you know, who wrote about perfect love driving out fear? He wasn't just writing some nice quote for a a t-shirt.… This guy lived it. He experienced it first hand with Jesus. Picture this: We find him face-down on this mountain, literally shaking in his sandals. He's terrified. But then... then he watches something unfold that changes everything. He watches Jesus - the son of God, the beloved Son and what does Jesus do with all that power? He comes close and he touches them… Its true… look with me in the last verse… in verse 7, But Jesus came and touched them. 'Get up,' he said. 'Don't be afraid.’ See what the word says? 'Jesus came.' He didn't stand at a distance. He didn't send an angel. He didn't shout instructions from afar. Real friendship closes the gap. Now, that might not sound revolutionary to you, but think about what He didn't do: He didn't stand at a safe distance He didn't send an angel with a message He didn't shout 'Hey guys, get it together!' from across the mountain

You know what He did? He closed the gap. Because that's what real friendship does - it closes the gap. And watch this - Jesus shows us four things about what real friendship looks like. This is beautiful… First, He Initiates. He takes the first step. When we're face down in fear, He moves toward us. He doesn't wait for us to get our act together first. Its the same with our lives, before you knew of Jesus, He knew you. We call that in the theological world, prevenient Grace. Which means, before you pursued God, he had already been pushing you first. Second, He Identifies. He gets down on our level. The God of the universe... comes to where we are. That's incredible! It began for us at the birth, that God the father would send his son, for unto us a son is born. There was a time, when I was a young adult, around 19 or 20 years old, and I had a panic attack. Life was overwhelming me. Its true.. I'm human. I have struggles and real needs too overcome in my life just like anyone else. And my best find Ryan couldn’t get ahold of me so he shows up at my house and he finds me underneath the computer desk. He notices that I'm not ok, so he gets on his knees, and he tries to shimmy in with me under the desk and he goes, man, I'm here for you, I’m here to listen whats going on. He identified something was wrong and he got down on my level. Thirdly, Jesus invests. He touches them. Right there in their fear. In their mess. In their uncertainty. He makes physical contact. Sometimes jut a simple touch can remind us that were alive and this is real and were not alone in our struggles. And finally - this is my favorite part - He Transforms. He doesn't just help them up and leave them the same. No, when Jesus touches your life, everything changes.

And here's what gets me - He's still doing all four of these things today. Still initiating. Still identifying. Still investing. Still transforming lives… and its all through the power of love and friendship. Because, Real friendship closes the gap.

Now, watch what happens next. Because it's not just what Jesus does - it's what He says. You know how some words just…well, they just sit there? Like when someone says 'cheer up' or 'don't worry.' Not exactly life-changing, right? And look, I get it. Sometimes we just don't know what to say when someone's hurting. We throw words out there, hoping something will stick, hoping something will help. We've all been there. But when Jesus speaks… look at what he says, 7 But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” Now, this is where it gets interesting. When Jesus speaks to these terrified disciples, He uses a word that's absolutely packed with power. In the original language, it's ‘Egiero.' This isn't just any word. This is a resurrection word. A life-giving word. Watch this: A few verses later, when they're coming down the mountain, Jesus uses this same word when he says, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the son of man has been raised from the dead” It’s also the same word He uses a chapter earlier when he said that the son of man will be raised to life after three days. And in Matthew 9? There's this powerful scene where Jesus is standing over a little girl who had died. Everyone's laughing at Him when He says she's just sleeping. But Jesus sends them all away, looks at this dead little girl, and speaks this same word: 'Egiero' - get up.”

You see, when Jesus speaks into your life, He's not just offering empty words or cheap encouragement. He's speaking with resurrection power. Like, I'm so passionate about this... and at the same time, so burdened... because we don't make much of our salvation anymore. And maybe... I don't know this isn’t condemnaiotn or judegemnt, just a burned heart trying to think it through…… maybe we don't see spiritual life explode in our lives and in the church because we've forgotten or made very little of our salvation. You know, in the New Testament, when you see Peter full of the Holy Spirit, it says he preaches with power. And what was the message? He preached... very simple… he preached, repentance. That’s it… Not, if yore saved you’ll prophecy. If your saved you’ll heal… not if your saved, you can walk on water… He made much of Jesus and the call for salvation through repentance. And im not saying you wont be called to preach, or anything else… im just saying, why not everyday make much of Jesus and the day you became alive in him. Celebrate it everyday. There's life in salvation... there's life in our salvation, in the salvation of others. And it begins when people are honest with where they are in their hearts. I went to men's retreat last weekend, and the first night... all I'll say is this - men were honest. I can't tell you what they were honest about, because what happens at men's retreat stays at men's retreat... but that first night, honesty came pouring out. And I told Kent... my heart is hurting right now... Because without repenting, confession is no more than boasting of our sin. So I prayed and prayed, and then the last night? The altar was filled with men repenting and giving their lives over to Christ. I got a message on Sunday morning that more men had come to the altar at their home church to receive Christ. There was an afterglow of salvation pouring into churches.. and that afterglow also pours into our church when Kent testified last Sunday. Here's what it comes down to: The words of Jesus have resurrection power. The question is - are we listening, and are we responding?

But there's one more thing we need to see here. Because Jesus doesn't just come close, and He doesn't just speak life - He does something even more remarkable. Henri Nouwen, is one of my favorite writers, and he helps us understand what's next.. … Henri writes: “The biggest trap we face isn't failing at life - it's believing we're not worth loving in the first place.” Let’s pause and thin about that for a moment.. Our biggest problem isn't that we mess up sometimes. It's not that we fall short. It's not even that we're afraid. Our biggest problem is that somewhere along the way, we started believing a lie. A lie that says we're not worth loving. Not worth pursuing. Not worth coming close to. You know, I've seen this play out for years. Remember that playground bully I told you about earlier? The one who wanted everyone to bow down or get punched? He wanted control. He wanted power. He wanted to dominate. But here's what I learned later - and what I'm still learning: behind that need for control was a deep hurt. A wound that hadn't healed. Years later, just after graduation, I heard that he had taken his own life. And it taught me something I'll never forget - we're all fighting battles others can't see. We're all trying to win and control something in our life. These disciples are face down in fear, probably feeling completely unworthy to even be there. And what does Jesus do? He does exactly what Nouwen talks about. He doesn't just address their fear - He addresses their worth. See, when Jesus comes close to someone who doesn't feel worthy of being close to... \When He touches someone who feels untouchable... When He speaks life to someone who feels dead inside… He's not just helping them up - He's rewriting their story. He's saying, 'You're worth more than your fear tells you.’

Because here's what I've learned: Nobody acts out of power unless they're acting out of pain. & Nobody pushes others down unless they feel down themselves. But Jesus? He doesn't come to push us down. He doesn't come to remind us of our unworthiness. He comes to lift us up. To speak worth into our worthlessness. To bring love into our fear. And to transform and resurrect our lives through his love. As Peter comes up… \\

Right now, some of you are face down this morning - maybe not physically, but in your hearts. You're believing the lie that you're not worth loving, not worth pursuing, not worth saving. As I look out at our church family this morning, I see two kinds of people… First, there are those of you who are face down in fear right now. Maybe it's not physical - but emotionally, spiritually, you're flat on your face Maybe you're paralyzed by something - a failure, a relationship, a mistake Maybe you just can't seem to get up on your own And I want you to hear this: Jesus wants to come close to you today. Just like He did on that mountain, He wants to touch you and speak life into whatever has you face down. But there's a second group here today. Those of you who God is calling to be Jesus to others. You know someone who's living in fear Someone who's face down and can't get up Someone who needs to know they're worth loving But here's what we all need to hear this morning...You can't pour out what you haven't first received. If you're pushing Jesus away from yourself, how can He work through you to reach others?" So here's what I want to challenge us with this week If you're face down - Take one step toward friendship with Jesus Start each morning with 5 minutes in His Word Write down one fear and pray specifically about it Reach out to someone and share your struggle If you're called to help others - Start with your own cup Evaluate your own relationship with Jesus Ask Him to fill you up before you pour out Look for one person this week who needs to know they're worth loving Because here's the bottom line: You have a friend in Jesus. A friend who doesn't demand your fear - He desires your friendship. A friend who doesn't push you down - He lifts you up. A friend whose perfect love drives out every fear. And He's still coming close today. Still speaking life. Still transforming lives through friendship. The question is: Will you let Him be that kind of friend to you this week? And will you be that kind of friend to others? Lets pray… As we go from here today, may you know the peace of having Jesus as your friend. May you experience His perfect love that drives out all fear. And may you walk in the confidence of knowing that whenever you're face down, He's the friend who comes close, speaks life, and lifts you up. Go in the peace and friendship of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen." *

Jesus as the Suffering Servant

I want to invite you to open your Bibles with me to John chapter 11. For those of you who are new to Community Church—and I'm so glad you're here—we've begun this year-long sermon series called "Just Jesus," where we simply want to see Him, hear Him, love Him, and live Him in 2025. That's what it's all about, right? Just focusing on Jesus. This month, we've been looking at Jesus as the Sacrifice, and today we're seeing Him as the suffering servant. And I've been thinking about this all week—my aim today is to show you how Jesus actually descends to us in love and what that means for us as a church community. But before I dive in, I want to tell you a story from my own life. When I was in high school, around my freshman year, I woke up one morning to voices coming from our dining room. The voice I heard—it was my older brother Matt who had just passed away a few weeks back from cancer. He was a firefighter and EMT, a first responder, and he had stopped by our house really early that morning. He came specifically because he wanted to tell me first-hand that my two best friends had been in a horrible car accident on their way home from work. One of my friends wasn't wearing a seat belt, and as they went over the bank towards the river, my one fiend that was in the passenger seat was ejected through the windshield. I'll share the rest of that story with you at the end of the sermon. But I want to just say this… Let's read John chapter 11 together, and I want you to find with me verse 35. It's the shortest verse in the Bible, but man, it might be one of the most powerful: are you ready… John 11. Verse 35 says… ”Jesus wept.” Two words. That's it. But these two words show us something incredible about who God is and how He responds to our suffering.

Think about this with me for a minute. Jesus was there at the beginning. He spoke and stars exploded into existence. He formed every mountain, every ocean. Genesis 1:31 tells us He looked at everything He had made and called it "very good." It was perfect. Just the way He designed it. And now, He's standing here, looking at death. Looking at what sin and brokenness have done to His creation. It's like watching something you made with your own hands being torn apart. I remember when I was in 7th grade, I was going through a tough time as a kid. We didn’t have money, my mom was always working 2 to three jobs, and she had bought me a balloon for valentines day. And I was so excited to get home and hug my mom and thank you for thinking of me and show her my balloon… but as I was waiting for the bus to pick me up, some kid ran past me with a pencil and just popped my balloon. I was devastated. And I cried and cried and cried.. because that balloon meant the world to me. The world was created through Christ. And the world meant the world to him and here he is, standing before what sin does, it brings death and separation… and he’s seeing it not from a far heavenly place, but up front and personal. Death was never supposed to be part of the story. And seeing this—this gap between what He created and what it's become— snd I just imagine him sitting there and his heart breaking over what the world has become. It just breaks his heart. And You know what gets me? Jesus knew He was about to raise Lazarus. He knew what was going to happen next. But He didn't rush to the miracle. He paused. He felt. And He wept. I think sometimes we rush past people's pain because we're uncomfortable with it. We want to fix it or offer quick solutions. "Hey, it'll be OK." "God has a plan." But look at Jesus—He doesn't do that. He steps right into the middle of their grief. And we know this is true of his nature and character, because look at what Psalm 34:18 says, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted." Not sending thoughts and prayers from a distance. He's close. He's right there in it with Mary and Martha as they're crying over their brother. He closes the gap of separation. And I want you to hear this today—when you're hurting, Jesus doesn't look away. He doesn't stand at a distance. He comes right to where you are. He sits with you. He weeps with you. He’s there with you. In your suffering, suffering with you. I remember at my last assignment I've sat with countless people who had lost loved ones through cancer... and as a young pastor, I remember being there in those moments just praying, "God help me... God I don't know what to do... Father, I don't have any of the answers. And I didn't have the solutions either. In these moments, all I could do was sit there with them. And sometimes, that's the most Christ-like thing we can do—is just be present with people in their pain. And walk with others in their circumstances. And thats just not a pastoral thing to do, but a Christian truth. As a Christians and a living sanctuary of God’s presence, you’re called to just being the presence of Jesus into others situations. This is what Jesus does. He descends into our pain with love. And He calls us to do the same for each other. Not to fix each other's problems, but to be present. To weep with those who weep. But when Jesus gets the news about Lazarus being sick, He does two things that seem really strange at first. First, He makes a proclamation. in John 11:4. Jesus says, "Lazarus's sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.”

And then—this is the part that always gets me—He delays. Really? Yes. He delays. The text even tells us specifically that He loved Lazarus and his sisters, and yet He delayed. That doesn't make sense to us, does it? When someone we love is hurting, our instinct is to rush to them, to try to fix things as quickly as possible. When I think about this delay, I'm struck by how counterintuitive it is to our human understanding of love. We equate love with immediate action, don't we? If we love someone, we rush to their side. We try to fix things as quickly as possible. But Jesus shows us a different dimension of love here. A love that sometimes waits for the right time. A love that sees beyond our immediate relief to our ultimate good. Think about it: If Jesus had gone immediately and healed Lazarus before he died, it would have been another amazing healing. But by waiting until Lazarus had been dead for four days—when everyone knew there was no hope left—Jesus was about to demonstrate something far more powerful. And here's what really gets me: Even though Jesus knew the disciples were afraid, even though they reminded Him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?" Jesus went anyway. For me, the truth that Love compelled Him to walk straight into danger. This is the heart of the suffering servant. He doesn't choose the safe path. He chooses the path that serves others, even when it costs Him personally. How often do we play it safe instead of following love's call? How often do we avoid discomfort, avoid risk, avoid the messy situations where people are hurting? The path of Jesus is the descending way of love - not rising above pain, but entering right into the middle of it. And that's what He calls us to as well.

This is where compassion and empathy come in. Think about it - when Jesus wept with Mary and Martha over Lazarus, He wasn't just putting on a show. He genuinely entered their grief. The God who created the universe allowed Himself to feel the weight of human sorrow. Look at what Hebrews reminds us.. "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” That verse has always amazed me. Jesus isn't some distant God who doesn't get what we're going through. He's been there. He knows what it's like to be human, to face temptation, to feel pain, to experience loss. And yet, he still descends into our hurt. Maybe like Mary and Martha at the time we desire for him to be there.. but he still shows up. There's one truth I've held near my heart as a Christian and as a pastor: Listen, The world will never fully understand what we do and why we do it. There's no way the world can completely empathize with our calling to walk obedient lives to Jesus Christ and to be led by the Holy Spirit. But here's what should set us apart - within the fellowship of the church, we should be able to empathize with one another. The world might not understand our faith, but we as a family of faith should be able to walk alongside each other through both joy and pain. And that's hard... because we all have different levels of pain. We all have had different experiences of hurt. And that makes it challenging to bring people from all different backgrounds, ethnicities, and cultures into one place and say, "love Jesus.”

So how do we do that.. how does that begin right here at Community church and then how do we descend into the lives of others with a love like Jesus, Well first it begins with being people of compassion. Compassion is more than just a feeling. It’s more than just seeing someone struggle and thinking, Oh, that’s tough. I feel bad for them. No, real compassion moves us. It pushes us to do something. Listen, Once we have learned to see with compassion, we cannot help but hear the invitation Jesus gives us to reach out. Think about Jesus. Over and over in Scripture, we see this phrase: "Jesus was moved with compassion." And every time we see that, what happens next? He acts. He heals. He feeds. He touches. He restores.

Theres a moment in Matthew chapter 4 where Jesus is having a terrible day. Why? Because His cousin John the Baptist has just been beheaded, so He goes away to a private place to mourn. And then, guess what.. the crowd follows Jesus, and they don’t go away, they stay. And then guess what.. they stay longer, and longer. Its like this people that are over at your house and your like.,.. when are you going to leave? They stay so long… that they are in badly need of a dinner. And so, Jesus sees them through the lens not of hate, or anger, or get out out of here.. he sees them through he lens of compassion. Look at it… When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Now, this is so good... do you know what this word compassion is called in Greek? It's called "splagchnizomai," which means to be moved from within one's bowels. To be moved from deep within… kind of like, a gut feeling. And so, I tell Alicia all the time... when I fart in front of her, that's my compassion coming out from deep within my gut. Hahaha. But seriously - for the ancients, the guts were where the most intense and intimate emotions were located, the center from which both love and hate grew. Today we talk about the heart as the center of our feelings; they talked about their guts. This Greek word is related real closely with the Hebrew word for compassion, "rachamim." But instead of the "guts," the Hebrew word refers to the "womb" of Yahweh. So, get this… Compassion is such a deep and powerful emotion in Jesus that it can only be described as a movement within the womb of God—which is the place of utmost growth, creativity, and love. When something hits in a deep place like the womb of God, you know that something is about to happen. Because Wombs bring forth new life. When Jesus was moved with compassion, it wasn't just a feeling. It was something that stirred in the very core of His being, something that compelled Him to action. Compassion invites us not to isolate or insulate ourselves but to reach out. It asks us to go where it hurts and to enter into the brokenness, fear, and confusion of other people.

Compassion is love in action. It’s seeing someone in pain and saying, I can't just stand here—I have to step in. It’s more than pity. It’s more than sympathy. It’s a deep, gut-level response that leads to movement. But here’s the thing—compassion, on its own, isn’t always enough.it cant just b e compassion… Because sometimes, we can feel compassion for someone, but still not fully understand what they’re going through. That’s where empathy comes in. Empathy takes compassion a step further. It’s not just feeling for someone—it’s feeling with them. It’s stepping into their shoes, seeing the world through their eyes, and walking with them through their pain. Most often when there are disagreement within the church, its never because I stepped into their shoes, but I stand in mine. But Jesus doesn’t do that.. what does he do.. He steps into their life. Now, hold that thought because we need to ask something… are compassion and empathy the same thing? Well,. No…. Compassion is when you see someone hurting, and your heart goes out to them. It’s that deep feeling of concern that moves you to help. But empathy? Empathy goes deeper. Compassion says, I see your pain, and I want to help. Empathy says, I feel your pain, and I’m with you in it. See the difference? Compassion is like standing on the edge of someone’s struggle, reaching out a hand to pull them up. Empathy is climbing down into the struggle with them and saying, You’re not alone. Here’s an example: Let’s say someone in our church is grieving the loss of a loved one. Compassion will make you bring them a meal, send them a card, or say, I’m so sorry for your loss. And that’s good—that’s important. THAT’S A START… But empathy? Empathy sits with them in their grief. It doesn’t rush to fix things or offer clichés. It listens. It cries with them. It walks through the pain alongside them. And that’s exactly what Jesus does for Mary and Martha… he weeps. He stops and feels their pain with them. He enters into their sorrow. He suffers with them. What empathy does is connect us to one another so that we know we're not alone when we struggle. Empathy couples us together and helps us walk this faithful life in unity. I love how Brené Brown puts it: "Empathy has no script. There is no right way or wrong way to do it. It's simply listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of 'You're not alone.’" Isn't that exactly what Jesus teaches us? He tells us, "My presence is with you. You're not alone.” Remember, in the Matthew account, Jesus says, he looks upon the crows and has compassion on them.. they were like sheep without a shepherd. In the ordinal language it means, they were - confused and helpless. Its like being kicked down, and when y9ou try to get up, you’re kicked down gain.. thats what Jesus saw in that crows…they were people who were confused and being helpless. And What greater message than this: "I, Jesus, the Nazarene, from the town of the least of these, through the line of David, the least of Jesse's brothers - I see you, and My presence is with you. You're not alone.” Church!!!!!!!! That’s our calling too. Compassion is like taking the spiritual fruit of kindness - being friendly, generous, and considerate - coupling it with empathy - the ability to understand and share the feelings of another - and that leads us to living out compassion, which literally means "to suffer with" another. "I know what you're going through. You're not alone. You see, compassion changes the way we live for God and for one another. There is no right or wrong way when it comes to compassion. Just be present to bring presence. We, Just show up. I want you to hear this… at community church… I want our vibe and culture to be like this.. what we want at community church is… ….the privilege of relationships within our community. Isn’t that one of our primary purposes as a Christ follower.. is to carry the very presence of Christ in our lives, shouldn't we be carrying Him to others so that He can manifest Himself within us and through us? Meeting the needs of our community and our neighbors is the key that unlocks many more opportunities to love, to be a friend, and to be there. And listen, The only wrong way to show compassion is not showing compassion at all.

As Peter comes up…… That morning, when my brother told me about the accident, my heart sank. I couldn’t process it. I remember feeling frozen—like the world had just stopped moving. But what I’ll never forget is what my brother did next. He didn’t just tell me the news and leave. He didn’t try to fix it with words or tell me everything was going to be okay. He sat with me. He stayed. He let me feel it. He let me grieve. And then he drove me an hour away to the hospital to see my friend who had gone through the windshield…. Thank God… both of them lived… and the story is so deep, that all I can say that it was only by His grace that both of them were alive. And, church—that’s what Jesus does for us as a suffering servant. In John 11, when Jesus arrives at the home of Mary and Martha, He knows the outcome. He knows He’s about to raise Lazarus from the dead. But before He does that, He stops. He enters into their pain. He weeps with them. And then he goes with them to the tomb… Because that’s what love does. Love doesn’t rush past suffering. Love doesn’t try to fix everything with quick words. Love descends. It steps into the hurt. It sits in the sorrow. And if Jesus, the Son of God, is willing to descend into our suffering—then shouldn’t we be willing to do the same for each other? Compassion and empathy—they aren’t just nice ideas. They are the very heartbeat of Jesus. They are how we love like Him. And that’s our calling as a church. To be with people in their pain. To descend into their struggles the way Jesus descends into ours. To bring His presence simply by showing up. So as we move into this time of worship and communion, I want you to ask yourself—who in your life needs you to be with them right now? Who needs you to not just feel compassion for them, but to have empathy with them. Maybe its the person across the row from you? Maybe it someone else in this congregation… "Beyond sympathy, beyond pity - Christ calls us to compassionate presence.” And it begins right here…

I want to try something the Lord laid on my heart last week.. … It’s going to take compassion and empathy. It’s going to take us stepping outside of ourselves and comfort zones for just a moment. Here’s what I want us to do. This side of the room, I want you to line up over here. And this side, I want you to line up over here. Go ahead and move now—I’ll explain more in a moment. (Wait for movement.)

As you can see, we’ve placed communion elements on both sides. I want each of you to pick up a cup and a piece of bread. And then, I want you to walk right here—to the middle, between the altars. But here’s the key—when you get here, you’re not taking communion for yourself. You’re giving it. When you meet someone in the middle, I want you to look them in the eyes—really see them. And as you exchange the bread and the cup, I want you to say these words to each other: “The bread, broken for you. The blood, shed for you.” This moment isn’t just about you and Jesus. It’s about us—the body of Christ, walking together, standing together, carrying one another. So let’s move. Let’s respond. Let’s share in the love of Christ together. You may begin. *